A Certain Magically and Scientifically Screwed Up Fanfiction
by Archie Rapha
Summary: From the first moment, he loved her madly. The catch? She, herself, has an unrequited crush on suicide. It had been his life's work to stop her. He did it once. A friend did it again. As he leaves everyone he cared for and what few cared back, he intends for the third time being the charm. New world, new city, new enemies, new friends. Among it all, can he find a way to save her?
1. Chapter 1

A Certain Loser Breaks and Enters Stage Right  
All_Downhill_From_Here

* * *

Somewhere within what was known to be the last bastion of scientific resistance against Academy City, Baggage City, was an arena where the Natural Selector tournament was going to be held. It was to be a contest to try to bring out those with skills and abilities outside of not just conventional logic and common sense but as well as the system of espers that Academy City prided itself on.

It was inside a common area of sorts where the contestants would gather to register for the event that he appeared.

There was nothing special about him. He was all around an average looking 17 year old Japanese boy. Even his clothing, a nondescript white shirt with black pants and shoes, were utterly unremarkable. But even so, all the seats around him were empty. The others keeping their distance from this average Joe by at least 15 seats and 2 rows and even those just outside that range tried to inch away as much as they could.

Anxiety. Disgust. Annoyance. Despair. Anger. Depression. Every emotion that the contestants felt toward him was the most negative that humans could possibly feel.

It's not as though he was doing or had done anything to earn this treatment. All he had done was enter the room and take a seat with a small smile on his face. He was used to such treatment after all.

The boy sits and swings his legs like a kid on a field trip. He takes a glance at the flier he had taken on his way here. It gave all the details one would need concerning the rules but he cared for none of that nonsense. What had caught his eye was the fact that people with all kinds of skills and abilities would be tested here. His hopes weren't high but he was never the type to deny that anything was possible.

Even after all that time he had spent on that detour with his cute, darling, insufferable childhood friend, his goals remain unchanged with regards to a certain vice-president. Why would it? Her goal hasn't changed after all. Though, if anything, his means of attaining his goal have changed.

"Number 10032. Number 10032, please step up to counter 4."

He jumped at this as he realized that was his number. The others around him cringe at his coming and breathed a collective sigh of relief at his passing.

As he walks up to the counter, the receptionist there realized that he was going to deal with quite the challenge.

"Good Evening sir. Baggage City welcomes your decision to display your abilities here."

[Ehehehe, stop it Vlad! You'll embarrass me!]

"How did you-"

He stops himself short as it would only make sense to come from someone entering the tournament. He is however completely ignorant of the fact that by a stack of papers to his left, was his ID badge. But Kumagawa wasn't one to sweat the small stuff.

That was a lie. He'd tear out a man's eyes for insulting his personal fetish of the day. Or for a quarter. Or because he felt like it. That was the type of guy he was. Or so he acted at any rate. His cool act was a rather fragile state of being.

"Mr. Misogi?"

[Wawawa! H-how did you know my name?! Are you psychic? Are you a witch? Better not turn me into a frog, witch!]

"Um, you put your ID out on the table before we even began speaking Mr. Misogi. Ah. Sorry about that. You Japanese prefer to be called by your last names rather than your first names right?"

[Gasp! You'd really stop calling me by my given name now! And after we've been through so much together, you and I...]

As Kumagawa begins to sob profusely, Vlad feels immensely drained by the entire conversation. Enough so that his level of care regarding his work plummets.

Though this wasn't just Kumagawa's fault. He wasn't the only weirdo and he most certainly would not be the last. It was primarily the fact that he was the 299th that Vlad was handling that day.

"Well Mr. Kumagawa, we just need you to fill out these papers and hand them into the machine there in the back. Feel free to call one of our other receptionists if you have any questions regarding the paperwork."

[Kay!], he says in an almost singing kind of tone while he walks back to his seat.

It's just as well for him that the man lose interest. He prefers to be able to stupefy his audience as much as possible so when the paper asked for a description of his powers and past, he simply just made up off the top of his head.

Besides, rather than either of the main skills he uses, he wants to put another one of his to the test. One that he hadn't really given much thought to until recently.

After he had finished and handed all his papers over to the machine, he decided on walking the streets for a bit. He had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to enjoy the sights as much once the fun started tomorrow. What few, heavily clothed, people wander about look at Kumagawa like one would a man that suddenly eats glass right in front of them. He just keeps pretending that the cold doesn't bother him. Like everything else, he fails in his acting and runs into the nearest building for warmth.

As soon as he had regained enough of his senses to be aware of his surroundings, his eyes and smiling mouth widen in shock.

He had clearly made a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

All around him was the pink aura of women's fashion and cafe's with a similar sort of consumer base to advertise to. Cute girls flitted about from store to store without a care for even a sycophant like him.

His smile was threatening to split his face in half as he took in everything. At least it was until he spotted something unusual by the map with the usual 'You are here' type of information on it.

A girl of around middle school age with black hair buns on both the sides of her head. Her pink sweater, miniskirt, and torn stockings seemed to exude a sort of dangerous innocence from her. Around her neck were several handheld devices of multiple purposes and uses.

She stared at the map like she was staring at some complex algorithm, muttering to herself all the while. Every now and again she'd pick up one of the devices on her and mutter some more. Normally, this would be a person to be avoided. You simply do not provoke the cute but possibly insane, even with kind intentions.

However Kumagawa was not in any way, shape, or form a kind or sane man.

[Hello there! What's a qt 3.14 like you doing here?], he asks as he ruffles her hair.

"Mm? I'm not sure of how to react to this. A stranger is ruffling my hair and called me the mathematical value of pie. What would be the Kihara way to respond, Amata-ojisan?", she asks a device, strange glyphs flashing across the screen and into her eyes.

[Ojisan?]

Her face contorts into a crude sneer that would be better suited on a middle aged, Cantonese, drug runner. A small gun presses up into Kumagawa's side as she pulls him down to her face by the collar.

"Why don't you fuck off before I pull out your colon so I can choke you with it, you fuckstain," she growls at him with an added, "How was that Amata-ojisan?", in a much less threatening tone.

She hadn't raised her voice but the timbre of it made the other girls passing by shiver. Despite how the situation seemed, the bystanders pitied Kumagawa for the cruelty being directed at him. Their sympathy lasted for all of 5 seconds before he flipped her skirt up, revealing a white pair of panties as he squats down for a better look.

[Yep! When it comes to girls like you, white suits your purity the best!]

The girl's face just had the sneer slapped off by this unorthodox response. If her face got any redder, you'd swear steam would start poring out her ears. She drops the pistol to the ground as she presses the screens to her face.

"A-amata-ojisan! Wh-what do I do? What could possibly be the Kihara response to something like this? He had a gun up to him and he just flips my skirt like some elementary schooler! Do I start filling him with holes? Do I fill him with concrete? Or am I supposed to take this experience cooly, like one of the more mature Kiharas and ruin him mentally instead of physically? No. Not enough. I need to access more Kiharas for this!"

It wouldn't exactly be possible to pull off that aura of cool maturity now that she has showed so much of her embarrassment like that but before Kumagawa could reply as such, he suffered extensive and immediate damage to his head.

It is just his luck that one of the contestants, Saflee Opendays, was passing by while she had time off to window shop. Also just as his fate ordains, she could deliver a kick to a man's skull powerful enough to pop an eyeball out the socket and cave the bone into the brain. Normally she'd hold that kind of power in reserve but Kumagawa's natural ability to make enemies out of strangers without even doing anything had brought out enough of that strength to send him flying with a streak of blood splattering a trail across the floor.

"Ah, geeze," Saflee groans, "I hadn't meant to kick that hard. He's probably a contestant too so I guess that it would've happened anyway. Damn it. Hope he's still alive after that."

She makes an attempt to move to his unmoving form when she feels an irrational, intense sense of dread from behind her, where the little girl was. She whips her body around, getting ready to meet whatever threat she had earned the attention of and see the source smiling at her.

[It's alright! I don't know how they would treat two contestants fighting each other outside of the arena but I won't tell on you! It's not like anything happened, right?], said the ever-grinning, boy.

His voice had no inflection or even a hint of pain. There was no blood trailing from his skull nor was there an eye dangling from his face. Indeed, it almost seemed as though she had merely imagined kicking him like that.

She doesn't dare look away from him but she does glance at the floor where there should've been blood. But there was none. As though it never splattered the floor. But even if he had some method for cleaning up the blood so quickly, there shouldn't be dirt or stains there. Not to say that the cleaning staff here neglect their jobs but it's only common sense that if you clean just one thing off the floor, there'll be a mark of clean space in the surrounding, untouched floor.

A parlour trick of this level existing could at least be explained away by Natural Selector. All kinds of unimaginable things would be brought out to the public's attention here. The British Halloween combined with the events during WW3 had made it so that people could accept that sort of inexplicable phenomenon. Hence, the tournament. The impossible became plausible.

But then what could be setting off so many danger alarms for the onlookers? What is the feeling that Armageddon was lurking in every shadow come from? Why is that boy still smiling?

"...I don't know what the hell you are or how you did that but if you don't step back from that girl, I'll just keep smashing that face until the gray matter comes out," Saflee threatens.

Normally, she wouldn't be capable of such hostility for someone she had just met for such smallreasons. Normally, the crowd wouldn't unanimously stand behind someone with such a thirst for another's blood in their eyes.

Such was Kumagawa's nature to bring the absolute worst out of people.

Normally, he would allow them to turn his weak body into some fresh, red paste to paint the mall in some freakish avant-garde manner and follow that with having all his enemies be impaled on his screws with impunity.

But that was no longer the kind of power that he wanted brought out of him.

He raises both his arms and looks at the crowd with the glare of a lion bearing it's fangs at prey.

[Well, well, well then. It seems that I am blessed to have this much attention from a gathering of cute girls. It's such a shame that-]

His predatory mask melts into one of genuine shock at something behind his foes.

[WH-WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!]

What could possibly make such a monster react like that? Despite the danger from presenting that kind of person their back, their curiosity forced their attention to what was behind them.

A small rotunda with a palm tree in the middle. Of course, palm trees are simply not a thing in Eastern Europe. It's not just a matter of their aura of summer and tropical climes but in the fact that this was a city in the middle of a frozen wasteland. But perhaps that's why it was placed there. To give the customers a warm feeling in this cold, cold place and make them open up their hearts and wallets to the shop owners around here.

To sum it up, there was nothing.

They turn back around to see the boy's fleeing back with the small girl draped over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. They make to go after but are stopped dead in their tracks by a sudden awareness of their undergarments. Or rather a lack thereof.

It was then Kumagawa Misogi was determined to be an enemy of womankind.

It was dark when he started running off so he had no clue as to a passage of time but he was sure it had been awhile since they had begun chasing him. He had managed to lose them for now. He sits atop some crate in a warehouse where they stored some of the technology that the Anti-Academy Science Guardians had been creating previous to their rebellion. He had opened up one of the crates just to take a peek and found some special watches that were powered as well as timed by atoms. They had the accuracy of the atomic clocks that many other watches had their timing set by as well as a myriad of features. It could project whatever it is you're watching in high definition onto any surface, a hologram interface that could help guide you and play games with, and even had some ports built into it for you to connect to any device you wish.

But Kumagawa doesn't really care for these things. He just wanted to know the time. After 15 minutes of fumbling with the thing, all he had gotten was that it was 70 liters to 45 nautical miles on a February with the even hand on the 2. So he just tossed the thing that costs the equivalent of a car against a wall and has a screw impale it in place.

He sighs and turns to his young hostage.

[Hm? Why're you still here Enshuu-chan?]

She almost blurts out her confusion on his knowing her name before she remembered that her panties had her name printed on the lining. He would only tease her more if she mentioned that little fact so she remained quiet on that matter and moved onto bigger questions.

"Why did you let that woman hit you? With whatever method you used to get behind me after that kick, you could have avoided that in it's entirety. You probably could use that method to make counter-attacks too right?"

[Is that ojisan of yours asking about that?]

Enshuu frowns and answers, "Yes. Amata-ojisan figured that out for me."

Kumagawa laughs a little and stares at the ground, [Well, he's right. I could have just screwed them all to the walls but that's not how I want to do things. For now at least.]

"Why?", she asks, tilting her head.

[Because I don't want her to find out that I'm here just yet. Plus, I'd rather work on my other abilities than the ones she knows about]

"Who are you talking about?"

[Hmm. Well, I'd rather not talk about that any more than necessary. Such a thing makes this really inconvenient. Sorry Enshuu-chan!]

She shakes her head, "I don't really need to know. It won't matter by tomorrow anyway."

[Oh? Why's that?]

"Because the Kihara's are going to be invading this- hm? Ah! You're right Amata-ojisan, this isn't Kihara-like at all!"

[You keep talking a lot about those Kihawhatevers but I'm not quite understanding. That's your uncle or something on the other end of that call isn't it?]

"Um well," she begins uncertainly before one of the devices begins to flash in her eyes, "Hm. Hmhm. Right. Understood Amata-ojisan."

Kumagawa tilts his own head at this peculiar event but Enshuu eventually exits her trance to resume the conversation.

"Amata-ojisan has reevaluated what the most Kihara-like thing I can do here. Since you're something of an anomaly in what we had initially expected out of Baggage City, I'll explain everything for you."

[Woah! Does that mean Enshuu-chan will wear glasses and some oversized lab coat with nothing underneath and give me special lessons?!]

"Wha! No! It just means that I'm going to explain what we Kihara's plan to do after the first round tomorrow!"

[Tch.]

"Don't get so disappointed at that! I-," she exclaims before the device interrupts her once more, "Right. I understand. I don't know why Amata-ojisan is so particular about you. Maybe there's some pervert part of his thought patterns that I was unaware of."

[Enshuu-chan? The Kihara thing?]

"Well we're scientists from Academy City that specialize in the darkness. Though I've been known to be the least Kihara-like, unfortunately. Which is why I have this system for emulating the various

Kiharas that exist and had existed. Anyway, we've been sent here to neutralize the threat of their being another system for unexplainable powers fueled by science in the world. After the first round tomorrow, we'll start destroying this city."

[Darkness? Like the force? Or are you guys just that chunni?]

"Hm, I never really was able to understand that either. The others love to rant and laugh about that darkness thing but maybe I'm not Kihara enough to get what makes it so great. It kinda makes me feel lonely but at least the Kiharas that I have here can help me to laugh with them!"

[What's with the obsession? I could understand if we were talking about the age old boobs versus booty argument but why do you keep going on about that?]

"Because I need to be a Kihara!"

[But why?]

"Because. Um. Because their my family."

[Explain further.]

She begins to fidget uncomfortably, "Well. When I was younger, I got kidnapped by some guy that didn't like Kiharas. They did something to him I'm sure, but I don't remember what. He had taken me from them though and locked me up in this room. I was told he did it so I could be removed from science and thus, not be able to become a Kihara. But that's just silly. There's science everywhere if you look for it. I was actually pretty grateful to that guy for what he did. I was able to learn stuff all on my own without any books or teachers to give me the knowledge. It felt like I was discovering all these great things on my own. Eventually I decided to show off what I learned but well, I don't think he liked it very much. But at least with that, I was free to return to my family again. I wasn't able to go through the same stuff the other Kiharas did so I had to get these," she gestures to the devices hanging from her neck, "So I could have the thought patterns of all 5000 Kiharas to compensate for that."

[Oh, I see. I see. But isn't it fine to be yourself?]

"What do you mean?"

[Weeell, like you said, you had practically invented the means to discover all that stuff on your own without anyone to help you. Do you really need to be like those other science lovers when you clearly meet the requirements already?]

"But I'm not as cruel or ruthless."

[Maybe not. But I think that's fine. Say, do you know how other people get their powers where I come from?]

Enshuu frowns questioningly but says no more.

[Where I'm from our powers are given to us based on our personalities. Abnormals are people that are like the protagonists of stories that go off to kill the Demon King and stuff. They get smarts, skill, and crazy powers on top of all that. Never really liked those sorts of elitists.]

Kumagawa stands up from his crate and faces Enshuu.

[Then you have guys like me. Minuses. We're the faceless mooks the Demon Kings use that everyone gangs up on and beats down into ground without doing anything to provoke anyone. We only really get the powers. Though even with those sorts of strange abilities, we can't ever win against those protagonists. It's just the way things are. And since I'm the weakest guy to ever live, I have the strongest Minus.]

"Okay," she says doubtfully, "But what does that have to do with me?"

[Those Kihara guys sound a lot like Minuses to me and if your life was exactly as described, I'd say you're a special sort of Minus even among those guys. You may not be able to act as a Kihara or whatever on your own but if that cruelty wasn't in you at all, then you wouldn't act on it. Even with some convoluted technomababber that beams their thoughts into your head.]

"But what do I care about being a Minus? I don't want that."

[Well I don't even know if people here can gain that sort of power. The last three places I went to, people there couldn't have it. But it's not so much about that as it is the mentality of it.]

Enshuu raises an eyebrow at him and mumbles into her phone, "Amata-ojisan, are you really sure about this? This guy doesn't seem to be all that smart but he's not that bad a guy. So-"

Her mumbling stops as the display answers her with graphs and symbols flashing into her eyes again.

[Hm. It doesn't really matter either way, so you don't need to worry about me. I like being an idiot! Though I suppose I can't really be much else huh?], Kumagawa muses as he walks away.

"Where are you going?"

[Oh? I'm going to sleep now so I can be awake in time for my turn in the tourney.]

"You're still going to that? I just told you that we're going to wipe this place from the map."

He stops walking as he gets to the door and turns slightly to face her.

[The way I see it, there are too many Abnormals here for a bunch of Minuses like you to win. So therefore, I need to rest up so I can protect you after my round is up.]

Enshuu's eyes narrow as she asks, "Why would you do that? I'm going to be targeting you too, you know."

[I'm the sort of guy that doesn't discriminate between good and evil since no matter what, good and evil tend to be against me anyway. It doesn't really matter that you're going to try to kill me either. I've already decided to be your ally once I determined that you're the same as me. Well, not completely the same. I'd probably have to turn this whole universe to nothing for my own peace of mind if that was the case!], he replies cheerfully.

But this still does nothing to clear the confusion and unease that she felt about him saying this.

"You mean that you won't care when I kill all those other people? They won't be meeting kind ends at all. The Kiharas won't allow that."

[Then I probably don't need to show any restraint either! But again, it doesn't matter. Whether you decide to trust me or not, you're my friend now. So don't worry about any of those nasty elites if they wind up being too strong. I'll mess them up real good for you!]

And with that, he was gone. Less than a simple exit stage right and more of a sudden retcon of his character from that scene. He must have used the same trick from before, Enshuu thought. But she remained unconcerned despite the other Kiharas lighting up the devices below her head with a fury of curiosity.

"I know he was strange Noukan-ojichan and he would be a great way to analyze the systems that exist outside Academy City's but I'm too tired to deal with someone who can counter Kihara thought patterns like that right now. I'm going to go to sleep too."

Enshuu yawns exaggeratedly and wanders back to the hideout she had been staying at.

Kumagawa has done the same.

This meeting between the unqualified Kihara and the veteran of defeat was an unprecedented one. If he hadn't shown up there and spoke with her, things might've gone very differently but the actions of those involved had made way for an ending that cannot be taken back.

Very soon, Kumagawa Misogi would begin to irreversibly alter this magical world with his Minus.


	2. Chapter 2

Idiotic Mastermind and His Pupil  
Testing_The_Bonds_Of_Those_Born_Broken

* * *

Everyone in the arena was incredibly excited so far. After all, the first few match ups had been something really special to behold. The first, between a woman in a dress that apparently practiced MMA and a weirdo that was able to manipulate microwaves somehow, had proved to be a great opener. The rest were just as good with pair ups like a man claiming to be a synthetic robot from the future and a Rastafarian looking man that utilized the art of voodoo or the woman that flew without the aid of machinery or any form of magic and a small boy that could manipulate gravity. So of course things were looking to get ramped up even more with this match.

On one side was a middle schooler by the name of Katie Weirame. She is on the smaller side, wearing her blue hair up in small pigtails on the sides, a bubble-gum pink leather jacket, and a set of black jeans. Her cocky smile exudes an almost oppressive aura of self-confidence. She claims by the power of penguins(?) and lolz(?), she was able to manipulate sporks of doom!...whatever the hell that means.

Anyway, on the other side was Kumagawa Misogi who said that he could create illusions and manipulate people's hearts without saying a word. He wears just a white t-shirt and black pants. Possibly the blandest attire in the tournament so far but that had the effect of gaining even more attention from the others as being different. His general attitude is far removed from that kind of energy though. He looks more like he wants to curl up on the hard concrete and sleep than fight.

They both stand at opposite ends of the arena.

Katie holds a brown sack large enough to fit an old pc monitor, presumably full of sporks, and twirls it with surprising strength and dexterity for someone so young.

Kumagawa, however, merely stands with his hands in his pockets.

The klaxon that calls for the skills and blood of those within the confines of the arena calls for them both to begin. With that, Kumagawa takes his first step forward and Katie tosses her bag in a parabola across the distance separating them, silverware and plastic spilling all over.

A second step. The sporks all start levitating off the ground. A third. They all point towards him and fly.

Just before they make contact, he disappears. Katie's shock lasts only for a moment until she looks up.

A giant steamroller had somehow appeared 30 meters above the ground. She leaps out of the way as it crashes down on the ground, fragments of the concrete fling everywhere.

She coughs a great deal from an injury caused by one of those fragments before she can manage to speak, "Wow! I don't know how you managed to do that but that's pretty impressive!"

On top of the steamroller, lounging in the driver's seat, was Kumagawa. But he hadn't appeared like that to taunt or gloat. Rather, his mind was on something else in it's entirety.

[Hmm. Still doesn't feel right. Maybe if I screamed WRRRRRRRRY! or MUDAMUDAMUDA! for like a hundred or so volumes, it'd be better? Somehow? Hrm. Guess I need more data on this.]

He rolls off the steamroller like one might do down a hill in some effort to recapture their youth. As it usually is in those sorts of overzealous actions, he falls flat on his face. Everyone is too surprised by this to laugh or exclaim at the pain he might have suffered but he lept right back up before they could even register that.

Katie was no slouch herself, firing off the sporks behind him at his back. He disappears again but reappears not one centimeter in front of her. She punches out at him but he simply moves his upper body to the side to avoid the blow. This does not, however, stop the rain of sporks from impaling his back.

As he staggers to his knees, Katie steps back a bit. With his hair obscuring the view of his face, it was hard to tell if he was even conscious at that point.

"You surprised me again. Jeeze, what were you even doing? Oh. Well I guess it's pointless to ask you now huh?", she laughs at his broken form.

[Huh. I would have thought that you would have gotten a lot angrier if you had found out what I did. But wait, maybe you're actually the type to be happy about something like that?! Kyaa! What manner of pervert have I managed to tango with?!], he says as he snaps his smiling face back to look at his opponent.

"What're you-"

Her knees suddenly smack together as she brings both her hands to her crotch.

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING A PERVERT WHEN YOU CAN STEAL SOMEONE'S UNDERWEAR FROM UNDERNEATH THEIR PANTS?! HOW IN THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?!"

[It's actually a pretty easy skill to learn if you have the time and motivation for it. It doesn't even require any particular power to do so, just hard work and practice. I may not be the type for that but when it comes to women's panties, I'll gladly abandon my ego!]

"What?! What is with you? How haven't you passed out from the pain by now? Are you just hopped up on morphine? Are you insane?"

He slowly stands back up in a jagged fashion. If this was a movie, this would the moment where the audience might have cheered the hero with an unbreakable will springing back up to face the villain.

But maybe it was because of that disposition of his that no one could feel like his actions right now could in anyway be seen as something to cheer for.

[Whaaaaat. I'm just a pure hearted boy. I would never touch anything as illegal and immoral as that. My body is just used to this kind of treatment is all.]

With a pair of black panties pulled back on his thumb, Kumagawa slings the panties at Katie's enraged face. In the instant that she had to tear them from her face so she could see, flashes of metal fly for her.

She tries to use her power but it proves ineffective as they stab into her left shoulder.

"Gah!"

[So that power can really only be used on sporks huh? Must make it pretty inconvenient when any other eating utensils are used. Or if you're in a fight with anyone that's not a cook. Though I'd have to say that it'd be more interesting if you could somehow use that weird ability of yours to manipulate screws instead. Would make my loss ironic or something.]

"Do you even know what irony means?", she asks as she holds her limp, trembling arm

Kumagawa's smile disappears from his face as he stares blankly. He looks around as if the answers could be written on the walls somewhere. Scratching his head and his face scrunching up in confusion, he uses all the mental abilities at his disposal to answer the question.

[Um is it when a man and woman love each very much-]

"No. No. Absolutely not."

[Eh? Really? What do I know? My only education has been of the free ninety-nine variety. And I didn't exactly do it with honors either. But I doubt we're in this to brush up on our English. Oh wait, I only know Japanese don't I? Actually how have I been managing to talk to people out here? There shouldn't be this many people that even know English either for that matter. I should only be able to deus ex machina my way around so much, what the hell is even going on?]

Katie tears the forks and knives from her body.

"Well whatever, I'm not going to let you win using that bluster and idiocy of yours. I'm going to win this stupid tournament so I can make a name for myself and I'm not going to deal with this crap any more."

Her right arm swings wide, bringing the multitude of sporks her side. Several of them stab into the wounds on her shoulder and elicit a cry of pain from clenched teeth. She moves her shoulder experimentally.

"You may be right that I can only manipulate sporks but that gives me more range in what I can do."

[That's pretty cool. I probably do that too if I wanted to but I don't wanna right now. Right now, I feel more like this.]

Ten steamrollers appear of nowhere and come screaming through the air. In response, the sporks fuse and meld into three giant sized sporks. They strike a few of the construction vehicles and force them into the others, sending all but two into the ground.

Katie's body jerks to the left unnaturally just as they come crashing down. She winces but Kumagawa gives her no reprieve, already beside her with a large, red, jagged blade swinging for her neck. But it stops just mere centimeters from her skin.

Right through his elbow was a spork with an elongated handle originating in the concrete, his sword disintegrates into the air.

"Yeah. She mentioned that you might be trouble. That's why she gave me Hundred Gauntlets to deal with you if we ever met. It really is too bad. I don't know why you wouldn't use All Fiction even right up until the end but even if you had, it wouldn't have helped you any. It can make events events not happen but Hundred Gauntlets can make it absolutely happen no matter what. Which, in case you can't follow the flow here, means I can kill you. Permanently. Now," she mutters with a flourish of another spork from her shoulder, "I'll put an end to that wanderlust of yours."

[Yep. Thanks to you, I won't have to look for her any more.]

His arm that should should have been sealed shoots straight for her face. She's shocked but on instinct the spork's handle stretches out to stab into his neck.

[That'd be more useful if what you were hitting wasn't an illusion, like everything else.]

His voice comes not from in front of Katie where his body was but from directly behind her. She turns toward the source and watches a massive screw impale her in the back.

[Sorry. I lied. You did hit my arm although everything else, including the voice, was just illusions in a matter of speaking. If it's my delusions or if it's me making you hallucinate, I don't know. Or care for that matter.]

All the injuries from that fight had vanished as he makes the redundant gesture of dusting himself off.

"But...you were still able to use All Fiction on-"

[That's because it wasn't that. It was Non Fiction. She was never able to see me gain that one huh? It can undo things that have been undone so if your Hundred Gauntlets can make it so my All Fiction gets undone, Non Fiction fixes that little discrepancy. Really didn't wanna use either of those though. I wanted to win using my illusions and that weird aura I have that pisses off everyone. Didn't even get a chance to work that in there but that's just how skilled you were. Really should've put a bit more thought in what I was bringing in. A magical beast slaying sword does nothing against a regular girl. Guess I really can't win just yet. I'll have to work on that some more I suppose.]

He just shrugs his shoulders, shakes his head, and sighs.

"Yeah but Ansh-"

[Knows that I'm here? That's debatable. Odds are, you aren't the only one in this universe that she gave a skill to. She probably wanted to spread out her range of detection by having some of you around the place. All the same, I don't need you calling her over though. Pretty cool though that you had my old skill on you. Not sure how that happened since she had given it to me but leave it to her to be able to do something shady like that. Maybe she had Hanten-chan copy that just to welcome me before she left my universe. Makes my feel all warm and nostalgic inside when someone so dear to me gives me this kind of a welcoming party!]

Kumagawa leisurely walks up to her and removes the screw from her back. Despite her injuries being made 'nothing', the pain itself was too much for her to stay conscious. He grabs onto her before she can smack her face into the ground. The entire arena was dead silent. They have no clue as to what happened or how things turned out this way. The judges don't even know how to score this but since

Katie was knocked out, they gave it to Kumagawa anyway. With that, his match was over.

It had been just an hour after the Kiharas had invaded to bring chaos and panic in Baggage City.

Kihara Enshuu walks over the corpses of the ninja she had just killed. Her job was supposed to be hunting down various contestants but all she had really been doing was wandering about here and there. It wasn't very hard to find where people are in a cold place like this. Just seek out some of the warmer areas and comb through there a bit. If no one was there, she would just set up some traps for when they would come.

This was how she does things. It was said that she was not qualified to be a Kihara but there is a certain distinction that has to be made there. She may not be able to extract the level of insanity from within without the aid of her monitors but that didn't make her any less dangerous.

Rather, it could be said that she had the potential to be the most dangerous due to her retained innocence that the others had lost in the process of becoming Kiharas in full. They all knew right from wrong but jut merely chose the latter when it came to their work.

Enshuu was never given that fundamental knowledge from the beginning.

She sighs, "I really don't like doing this at all. Hm? What is it Noukan-ojisan? That guy we met yesterday? Hm. Yeah. He is a pretty big threat but I think if it's Byouri-obasan or Ransuu-ojichan, they could handle him. But I don't know if I could even touch him, much less kill him."

[Good thing then that you won't have to, Enshuu-chan!], the frivolous voice calls from behind her.

She turns casually to the walking natural disaster. Her devices start flashing their symbols like a cascade of warning signs.

"Hm. Hm. Yes. I'll be counting on you, Amata-ojisan. In this situation, the most Kihara-like thing to do would be," she mutters as she pulls out a grenade launcher from inside her coat, "this."

Inside the launcher was a custom made, thermobaric grenade that also had a highly heat resistant, flesh eating bacteria contained within the biogas that fuels the explosion. This bacteria was much like a swarm of piranha in that it will immediately seek out and destroy any detected living tissues. She hadn't really planned for her own safety for this attack but the explosion should open the hall up to the outside air, which should kill the bacteria after it has done it's job. That 40mm round was has just touched the tip of Kumagawa's nose.

The explosive force of both the grenade as well as the air rushing in from the vacuum created by it, puts Enshuu on the ground. As she lowers the hand covering her face, she tries looking down the hall lit only by the glow given off by the melted off bits of metal and floating embers. Though that light is being rapidly extinguished by the freezing air pouring in from outside.

No one could have survived such destruction. Even with whatever tricks he had at his disposal, escaping death was something that belonged more to the realm of gods than some weirdo that entered the Natural Selector. Enshuu, and by extension the Kihara thought patterns within her phones, was satisfied with this result.

She pumps her fist above her in celebration.

"Yay! I think that worked Amata-ojisan!"

[Now I just feel bad.]

Her previous cheer had been taken with what little warmth and light the hall had. That supposedly average Joe had stood up, snow slumping off his body, as though to defy whatever god had added that to his description from birth.

[Jeeze. You really put a lot of thought in that huh? The explosion itself was to distract me from whatever was in there that kept eating at my body. But that refreshing breeze seems to have stopped that. If it hadn't been for that, I might have had to keep dying and respawning over and over. Well, I might have gotten through that anyway but I still give you 25 points!]

She stands herself back up, keeping her eyes locked on the enigma in front of her.

"Why?"

[Oh that'd be because of a skill I got from this cute-]

"No, why're you just standing there? You could have just taken me out in the time that I had let my guard down."

[Haha. But I doubt you really had let you're guard down to begin with but that's neither here nor there.], he waves his hand dismissively as he walks toward her, [I told you that I was your ally, didn't I? I wouldn't hurt you no matter how much you hurt me!]

"But even if you were my ally, I still tried to kill you."

[Even treachery has it's charms!]

The devices call for her, "Yes. That makes sense. Yuitsu-oneechan says that I should just follow along for now and wait for an opportunity. There's no way that a human can be that invincible so I'll just have to find a way to kill you using all the Kiharas at my disposal. After all, once they're dead the immortals are just really long lived. But that can wait for later, I suppose."

[You've got quite a big family, don't you?]

Something heavy and warm is draped over her small frame. Her head tilts up to Kumagawa's face, who had just placed a coat he got from somewhere on her.

[Well anyway, Enshuu-sensei-chan, where to now?]

She remains silent as she stares at her monitors. She's unsure of how to react to this gesture. None of the Kiharas seem to be agreed on that matter either.

Some say to rip his testicles and eyeballs out so they can be switched. Some say to abandon the coat since a Kihara shouldn't care about their personal safety. Some say to attack at the boy's mind by tearing him down psychologically somehow. Some say to simply act thankful so he could be lulled into a false sense of security.

So instead of waiting on a consensus to be reached, she simply wanders away to her next destination.

There's much work to be done after all.

Unknown to her, the ninja further back into the hall had something shining dully from their chests but even if she had looked to them now, the silver radiance in that dark had been deteriorating. Moments after, someone among them opened their eyes wide.

Due to the intense temperatures of Baggage City, quite a few of the above ground buildings had extensions running as far as their full height topside. Although they didn't have any of the complexity that Academy City's underground facilities had, they still were quite grand in it's architecture. Perhaps that's their reputation for trying to catch up to the world's center of science in action.

The motley duo had just come to an open area of one of the underground complexes and hide by an entrance. They had been watching the scuffle between the voluptuous, dancing maid and the young, showy-looking ninja for awhile now. They had initially wanted to step in when it was just the ninja fighting the guard but when the maid appeared, Kumagawa stopped Enshuu from going in.

"Can we attack now?", Enshuu asks as they watch a ninja get knocked out by some maid.

At some point, they too had come across some of the military forces that guarded the city. But they were already taken out. By who? Who knows. It did, however, enable Enshuu to add a bazooka to her inventory. She currently sits on top of it like it was some military carousel horse, the business end pointed toward her enemies.

[Not yet. Not yet. I want to show you my side of things.]

She tilts her small head in response.

[That woman over that looks like a maid but dances like a professional stripper is one of those Abnormals that I spoke of.]

"She's not. I don't know who she is but the Kihara side is saying that she's using some kind of esper power. It's probably something to do with her muscles or maybe she can manipulate her centrifugal force some how. You know, it's not very Kihara-like to be standing back and watching your enemies when you already have the means to obliterate them. I don't want to use that kind of violence but-"

Kumagawa pats her head as he chuckles, [Well then it's a good thing that I'm not a Kihara then, huh? It doesn't really matter if it pertains to the system that my abilities come from or not, there will always be Abnormals. There will always be Minuses. It's like Neapolitan ice cream, you can't have one flavor without the others!]

"But you could have them by themselves. There's no rule saying you can't have chocolate ice cream without vanilla or strawberry. Also, I think you should've used yin and yang for that metaphor."

[Hey, hey! That hurts my feelings Enshuu-sensei-chan-tan! Stop going to your phones just to channel your displeasure of me into something you can express! You'll make me cry!]

Despite his words, he cries anyway. Her usually hesitant face twists into one that looks as though she had just seen someone eat a still squirming cockroach. Her monitors flash with all the ugliness of a technicolor yawn.

"Why are there more honorifics now? Ransuu-ojisan says that's dumb. Amata-ojisan and Bunri-oniichan agree. Yuuitsu-oneechan says that you're gross. Byouri-obasan says you look the type to go raiding through even an old woman's panty drawer. Sousai-chan agrees with Byouri-obasan and says that you'd also be likely to be caught eating the used tissues of some girl that has a cold. Kouten-oneechan would like to ask if you also stalk random girls to see if they'll use a portapotty so you can hide inside the pit as she goes."

This kind of pressure from such a small girl might crush the hearts of even strong men but, well, his personality has been explained enough to guess at what happens next.

[Don't make me flip your skirt again. It'll please me more than it'll hurt you. And I can't guarantee your mental safety after that point. I might add them to my collection. Hell, I might add you to my collection by that point.]

The dark look on his face causes her to frightfully jut both hands onto the front of the skirt which lay directly on top the bazooka. To go further, her hands had just bumped against the button to fire the tubed death maker.

As it goes soaring over the maid, Kumagawa pushes her along as she clings onto the bazooka.

[GO, GO, GO! DON'T WASTE THIS MISTAKE OF YOURS!]

"IT'S YOUR FAULT ANYWAY- WAH!"

She had just tripped over a bit of fragmented rock created from the impact of the blast, causing her whole body to spin with all the drama of a Power Ranger being caught in some explosion. Incidentally, the maid just so happened to be in the radius of the bazooka's rotation. A heavy sounding smack is rung throughout the area as she goes flying, rolling, and banging across the floor.

The other monitors flashed with rage and the urge to maim but Kumagawa came smiling after her all the same.

[My goodness, Enshuu-sensei-chan-tan-dono! You've beaten an Abnormal with such ballerina-like precision! I'm so jealous of your skills! Wah, look out for the other loli!]

She harrumphs but begins to come to a very strange realization. Since when did she act so animatedly?

Now she wasn't some robot, wiped clean of emotion, but she was removed enough from those feelings to make it so she wouldn't express them as often as others simply because she didn't know how nor have any desire to do so. If she was capable of showing the normal type of range of emotions, she might not be suitable for the Testament type technology that hung from her, her personal, mental and psychological safety notwithstanding.

Enshuu kicks the caltrop that ninja dropped at her targets face.

Maybe it was because of how this strange and inexplicable boy would do the strange and inexplicable. Like that theory that says you can making a girl fall for you if you cross a rickety bridge with her, he's been doing all these things to open her heart up to him. If she was a regular girl, and if he wasn't such a dastardly perv, she might've started to blush at the prospect of it. But betraying her natural aura of innocence, she began to question his motives.

She shoots a second kick to score a hit in her target's gut with that metal sheet.

He had been following her after she had proved that she was someone here to eradicate all the threats to Academy City with impunity. You could say that he couldn't even consider her a threat but if that was the case, why follow her this far and help her? To keep the act up? That would be going too far considering that he had nearly died to her, by his own admission.

She adjusts her strike so that the kunai goes for her target's face.

Well, no matter. For Enshuu, she had already determined the most Kihara way of dealing with him early on. She may not be able to deal with him as casually as she had the maid from before and the ninja now but, again, it doesn't really matter right now.

She readies her hand to finish the ninja off but an arm cloaked in white blocks her view of the targets face as it knocked the kunai away.

This doesn't really matter either to her. She just adjusts her targets accordingly and lets her fist fly. But her new opponent, a man wearing a white jacket and helmet, kicks at her feet at just the right time to throw out her body weight from the equation of her fist to his head.

Apparently, it does matter.

She steps back a bit to get a proper look at her enemy.

"Kihara Enshuu, hm? I had heard you had not yet qualified as a Kihara," muttered the helmeted man.

"Who are you?"

"If you wish to harm these girls, I must make you my enemy."

"If you wish to save these girls, I must make you my-guh."

There was no feeling of it ever happening. There came no sound. There came no form nor sign of the attack. Yet, there still was the pointed end of a screw coming out of her chest as long and thick as your standard traffic sign post. She only knew of one behind her.

"Y-you..."

[Sorry, Enshuu-chan,] Kumagawa began, walking toward her with a gentle look to his face, [But you can't win a fight against that guy. If you fight him, you might get hurt. So I had to pierce you with one of my screws.]

Her body slumps to it's knees from both the physical and mental pain of being betrayed. But their was some other feeling emanating from her wounds than something as cheap as that. It was like the screw had pierced and soiled more than just her corporeal heart. She felt extraordinarily _weak_.

"I thought...I thought you were on my side."

[Yeah. I guess it's a little hard to see that but maybe it would make it better if I say that trick I've been using to escape death is something that doesn't apply to just me. Though, that'll just help for the psychosomatic pain you'll feel. After all, that screw isn't really piercing your body. If I had been thinking properly about which screws I was using rather than just saving you, maybe things wouldn't be so bad but...well you aren't even conscious any more.]

He crouches down to lightly brush her short, _white_ hair from her face to behind her ear.

[I'll listen to all your complaints and take responsibility for ruining your life without thinking. It's not really something I would do but I guess that's why I'm doing it,]he whispers as he stands up and returns the mystery man's stare. Or at least, he thinks the guy is staring at him.

[You're pretty polite for a guy that declared himself Enshuu-chan's enemy!]

"...And you're pretty ill-mannered for an ally of hers. Though, maybe that's the only kind of allies a Kihara can gather."

[I dunno. She had tried to kill me since the beginning and even told me that she would continue trying to find a method of killing me so I don't think this is really my fault! Oh. Wait. Maybe that was a love confession?! Is this the fabled yan-tsundere?! Or maybe it's more like tsun-yandere?]

"Heh. No. You're definitely the type to be hanging around a Kihara. But still. What do you intend to do now?"

He chuckles as his grin stretches a little bit wider, [I'll just do what I want. SSDD.]

The man regards this before turning his back on that smiling monster, "Alright then."

[Eh?]

"Oh? I figured that you didn't want to actually fight me but was I mistaken?"

[Hm. Well if it's a matter of fighting or not, I don't really care to but it might be fun to take on someone like you!]

"Don't think someone opposed to fighting would think the prospect of it could be 'fun' but I was thinking that you were just going to distract me until you could take her away from here," he responds, pointing at Enshuu, "I don't quite know what it is you did but you went further than you would have liked right?"

[...]

"Then don't worry about me. As long as these two are safe, I have no intention of harming her. Unless, of course they sent you along with her to take this city out. I doubt that's the case though."

[Ahhhhhh. I see now. You're just making a detour too huh?]

It was almost hard to tell from the outward appearances but the man fists clenched up for a moment before he realized how the boy came to his conclusion.

"Yeah. This is just my way of fighting the role given to me before I do what I came here for."

[That won't last after you're done, will it?]

The man says nothing more. His conviction is already set. His will already tempered.

Just the same as Kumagawa's. The boy responds to the man's silence in kind, exiting stage right with the girl in his arms.


	3. Chapter 3

The End For One Journey Is The Start Of Another  
Manipulator's_Battle_Of_Silver_Tongues

* * *

It hadn't been very long but Enshuu still woke as though roused from a coma. When she had remembered what had happened last, she shot up from the floor.

She was in some storage closet used for storing various maintenance tools. Everywhere she looked, there was no sign of Kumagawa. She looks to her chest, her short _brown_ hair obscuring her face, but finds no mark from that giant screw.

Instead, she finds a letter secured to her clothes with a safety pin.

To my dearest Enshuu-chan,

I have left to do some soul searching, as soon as I have hunted down those

unfortunate souls I will return with food. Do you like cheap hamburgers from

convenience stores? I do. That's what's for dinner so look forward to it!

Fervently yours,

Kumagawa Misogi, spats connoisseur, esquire

PS, You might be a little bit of a lot messed up in the head after that screw from

earlier so try to rest up and take it easy, okay? XOXOXO~ ;)

"..."

Enshuu tears the note from her and throws it to the side without a care.

She had learned awhile ago that she shouldn't rely on anyone that she cannot predict. It was rare when such a person appeared but she can't deny that they exist. Even if the person had nothing but ill intent for her, she could at least trust in their evil ways when properly analyzed. She could handle anyone as long as they fit those parameters.

Though she finds it odd that for some reason, she was beginning to grasp that wild card's nature. Good. That'll make it easier to eliminate the unknown variable from the situation.

Still, perhaps it was that she simply hadn't realized it yet but as she was considering how she should treat the man that betrayed her, she hadn't used the devices on her neck even once.

When Kumagawa returned to the closet he had stuffed Enshuu in, he had found a significant lack of borderline insane loli. But he expected that. He did betray her after all so it made sense that she would leave to go about her mission without him.

What he didn't expect was the parting gift she left in the form of a jury-rigged pressure cannon, using a fire extinguisher that was hooked up to the steam filled piping and loaded with a grenade hooked up to the doorhandle, firing the now live grenade into his stomach.

His guts and various body parts painted the hall for a moment but the event was disregarded in the next instant.

[Wah! I guess she really is angry with me. Oh well. It's not really my fault if she took my saving her as betraying her. Especially after my love-filled note that I left her. I'm sure we'll come across each other eventually. I did curse her with my original Minus though so she might get herself into some trouble. But wuddyagonnadoo~.]

Without anywhere to be or do for the moment, he simply wanders.

Misfortune tends to follow after him like some crazed ex that wanted to wear his skin so he was sure something was bound to happen.

He leaves the main building and heads out onto the streets.

[Brr! I was hoping after that scalding desert from the last round that I'd be taken somewhere colder. Ah, maybe lady luck has finally looked my way then? Hm. Dunno if I'd be too comfortable with that idea.]

As he passes some clothing store, he decides that it may just be a good thing in the long run if he were to dress appropriately for once. The lights were off as he stepped in but he didn't know where to find the switch so he ceased to care.

The general theme seemed to stress a fashionable cheapness to it. Which is to say, that it wasn't fashionable at all. None of the clothes were flashy or really stood out too much. It was as if this was a place for background characters, serving no purpose in the story other than to exist, to shop at.

[I guess I need to get something to replace my old uniform. But I don't know if I can really replace such an old soldier like that! It was with me for so long. We went through the same hardships and pain whenever we lost togeth-oh hey! That's a cool hoodie! Could use a scarf too huh.]

Once he had his ensemble together, he went to take a look in the mirror.

The jacket he picked was one of those sorts thrown on black mannequins so the customers can't tell that it was made for the slim physique of an asian and not literally anyone other than that. Though, it was still of some pretty tough, practical materials so he would be plenty warm wearing it. His scarf was of the thick, wooly, and soft variety.

It suited him well. Too well. Perhaps due to the colors.

He sighs, [Did I really choose these colors without looking? It's dark in here but...I guess I really do miss it...]

His true feelings admitted, all semblance of the cool act Kumagawa puts up shatters.

"Ahhhhhhhh! Why'd I have to try to impress Saki-chan with that crap?! I gave her my favorite clothes and now I have nothing! If it wasn't for my screws I'd be just another background character! Did I really think that was cool or something?! Like, 'Look at me Saki-chan! I've graduated from my retarded chuuni ways!' But I still talk in brackets! I still flip girl's skirts! Well, I do that last one for the hell of it though. Maybe not even just a whim so much as it is something that makes my pants tighten a bit but still!"

His anguished cries at his sorely yearned for echo throughout the store. Just as quickly as he had dropped it, he put that mask back on.

[Well. I really shouldn't be ignoring such a captivated audience like that, should I?]

The brightness of the light-bulbs all blast the area with light at once.

Sitting on top of the counter behind him was a woman wearing a red sweater under a white coat with a hood, along with white pants and shoes. She wears golden necklace and golden headband for accessories.

She stares at Kumagawa like someone interrupted in the middle of doing everything in her power to avoid work by more work.

"I was wondering for how long you'd be screaming so miserably for. I'm really not a combat type so I'd appreciate it if you'd just go away. You can keep the clothes if you like but I'd really rather not do anything more than what I was told. I don't feel like doing something as draining as killing someone."

[Yeah, yeah! I feel the same way!]

"...So then go."

['Kay!]

He begins to walk toward the exit but stops halfway. He speaks with his back turned to her.

[Say, Miss, ah.]

"You don't need to know."

[Right, Miss you-don't-need-to-know, whatcha doing out here all by your lonesome? There's strange stuff happening out here. I'm sure that everyone that doesn't have something to do with that is in hiding at this point. So what's a beautiful place like you doing in a girl like this?]

Her expression hardens, "Like I said, you don't need to know."

[It wouldn't happen to do with those Kihara folks, would it?]

There is a tense silence before she sighs in frustration.

"You're so incredibly irritating for some normal human. _So why don't you just die then_?"

Without even hesitating, he jams one of his enlargened screws into the side of his head and collapses into a pool of his own blood.

The woman sighs loudly again as she hops off the counter and makes for the exit in the back.

"Oh. So you weren't exactly normal huh. Well, whatever. This really isn't supposed to be my job. Even Marian is better suited for combat than me so why do I have to deal with these people?"

[Dunno but what do you want me to do next you-don't-need-to-know-chan?]

She freezes at the voice and turns around to see the supposedly dead man standing upright and smiling without any injuries. Even the blood had disappeared without a trace.

"... _Kill yourself. Permanently_."

This time he walks up to the counter and bashes his head into it until even his facial features are smashed from his face and once more collapses onto the floor.

She observes his unmoving form for a few more moments before she attempts to turn away. But in the split second that she blinks, he's back to his feet without a scratch.

[Ah man, I messed up again huh. Can't say I'm too sorry about it though. It's not my fault that I can't ever experience the event of dying. Well, I do experience it but I suppose it'd be more accurate to say that it just get's erased from the records.]

"I don't have time for this. _I'll just have these guys fight you until you finally give up_."

They popped up from every corner. Dressing rooms, behind the counter, from inside the racks that the clothes hung up on. There were the security forces of Baggage City as well as several of the participants in Natural Selector.

" _You all have the means, so kill him until he stays dead_ ," she commands as she walks away for a final time.

[Ah come on. I know it must be annoying but can't you even come up with some better method? This is just lazy.]

"Maybe but I have no need to stick around. Like I said, I have better things to do than to fight when I'm not suited for the task to begin with. Besides, _it's not like you'll fight back, right_?"

At her words Kumagawa finds himself completely unable to muster any kind of hostility towards anyone in the room. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't raise a hand to any of them. She turns away again, certain that even if he would keep coming back to life he would be unable to even touch her.

Perhaps as a sign of things to come, Kumagawa's standard grin threatens to split his face in half as he is attacked on all sides.

Sigyn was not someone who fought battles at the physical or even the mystical level. Her specialty lay in tearing an opponent's logic and motivations apart. She would slowly draw out their motives, their hopes and dreams that cause them to clench their fists for it's sake, and then proceed to causally destroy it with her suggestions.

It was at the level that it became impossible to tell the difference between her interference and their world being destroyed from within. In that aspect, Sigyn was immensely powerful. But as it has been said, she is no combat expert. In fact, she would likely lose to the weakest human in a straight up brawl as long as that person ignored her attempts to draw out what was needed to destroy them.

However, nothing exists within the realm of the mortal and mundane that has just one specialized weakness to attack.

For her, the deadly sin was sloth. She would accomplish whatever task she was given by the other members of Gremlin so they all might achieve what they desired but not any more than that. Plus, if the situation grew to the point where she felt like she was going to lose, she would just back out.

An excellent example would be the current situation.

"Geeze. What was she thinking sending non-fighter types here? Wouldn't it be obvious that Academy City wouldn't want a place like this to exist? And yet she still brought us without even bringing one of the rear guard guys. Loki has probably been taken out but I can't really say I care at this point. Maybe I should back out of this. I don't even need something as small as a magic god when she's on my side."

Her legs froze up immediately. Hairs stood on end. Sweat broke out on her forehead. When she pivoted to the source of her irrational fear, she understood why.

It came from that smiling boy that should have died back in the clothing store.

[Something greater than a magic god huh? Don't really know the power level on something like that, I just got here after all. Is it around 4232 or so?]

"Ho-how?"

[Hm? Am I off the mark? No way, is it over-]

"HOW DID YOU ESCAPE THAT TRAP I SET?! THERE WAS NO WAY FOR YOU TO DEFEND YOURSELF SO WHY?! WHY DO YOU TRY SO HARD TO LIVE?!"

Her shrill cry of disbelief echoed throughout the empty streets.

Kumagawa's smile disappears from his face. He hadn't moved at all. Not an ounce of killing intent could be found, even on that irritated face.

But even so, Sigyn found herself pierced from all sides by large screws without any warning whatsoever.

[That was pretty rude. I was just trying to make a bit of a joke. That's all. But you still had the gall to interrupt me. It's not my fault if I take offense to that right? Or are you the type that tries to run the guy that cut you off the road so you can yell at him? That's pretty dangerous you know. What if the guy had a gun? He'd shoot you dead for the idiot you are.]

But just as quick as it had been to set him off, he returned to his normally smirking self.

[Well, I have it in me to accept such abusive behavior. After all, if I were to have acted in kind to that vulgar behavior every time I was subjected to it, everyone I meet would have been screwed to the floor like you are! So I forgive you! Oh and to answer your question, they all just started screaming in such fear that they all dropped their weapons. Can't say I know where that came from but obviously I had to get out of there. If there was some maniac like that on the loose, then I really don't wanna run into that guy!]

In that instant, the screws disappeared from her body. But that didn't help anything.

Rather the dissonance between when she was struck and when her wounds had disappeared had left her with a feeling that made the world seem unreal. As though the sky could fall or the ground could crumble.

Reality became a difficult thing to parse in this situation.

"Anshin'in mentioned that-"

[Ah! You said it! You fucking goober, why would you do that?!]

"What? Do you really think that she still hasn't realized that you're here? Don't be stupid. She told us all about you and warned us the moment she sensed you had arrived."

[Ehhhh? Is that so? I've been here for a little while before this though but I guess that isn't really important right now.]

She had been told all about Kumagawa in a dream that Anshin'in had entered.

Sigyn knew based on that information that it was hopeless to use the skill that she had been given, One-way Mediator, to beat him in her traditional manner.

So even if it was hopeless, she would have no choice but to resort to her modus operandi if she wanted to eliminate him here and now.

[Then where is that vp of mine?]

She laughs, "Do you really think an existence like that can exist in the world without her very breathing rending reality to shreds? In that way she's similar to the magic gods but very different. The world would still have a place if all the magic gods did was destroy the world but if Anshin'in were to step foot in our level of existence, nothing would survive the encounter."

[Yeah, that'd be just like her to stay holed up somewhere comfortable so she can laugh at me. Oh well, I'll just have to figure out a way to get to her without turning the world to nothing.]

"Are you really still trying to stop her at this point? I would have thought that you would have given up. After all, _she did set it up so that you wouldn't need to chase after her_."

He frowns, [What're you-]

"Had you really never considered it? Why it was that everyone accepted you so readily? She did it so as to give you reason to stay in that world of yours. So you would have friends to tie you down like _Medaka or Zenkichi or even that group of Minuses that you believed that you had gathered with your own power._ Or to fall in love with one of the few she had set up to be your heroine _like Sukinasaki or Kikaijima_. They were manipulated in the subtlest of ways so as to not arouse your suspicions but maybe that failed? Even so, _why do you continue to try so hard in stopping her_?"

[...]

"It's not even like you believe you can. That's evident enough by the fact that you still cling to that old strategy of gathering strong talents to hopefully outmatch her skills. _That's why you entered this tournament right_? With no other path readily available to you, you decide to go with the only one you've ever known. _But that just keeps you trapped in that loser role that you should have left behind_."

[...]

His silence was deafening. Since the start of her attack, he had kept his head lowered. Despite all she had thought possible, her words were killing him from the inside.

"So long as you stick to that path, so long as you keep the mantle of eternal failure, _you will never stop Anshin'in_. And why would it matter? You just want to stop her from killing herself? That's nothing _more than the naive and selfish delusions of someone that will never understand her pain_."

Her voice rose in it's powerful timbre. She struck the final blow to his motivations, to all his hopes and dreams no matter how small or large.

"You have no way of winning against her anguish with such half-assed methods and reasons!"

Her voice once more echoed across the surfaces of all the buildings on that snowy road.

She knew it. She knew she had killed him with that. But still. Something felt...off about it.

Maybe it's because he hasn't fallen to his knees out of despair? But that could just be a misinterpretation of how he deals with his despair. Or even a misinterpretation of a higher, more fatal, degree.

"...Maybe you're right about all that. Maybe it's selfish of me to turn away all that she had given me to forget about her just so I can act on such selfishness. That's always been the type of guy I am."

His voice, though still frivolous in it's own way, began to take a somber tone.

"You picked exactly the right words to cut me the deepest, didn't you? Then I suppose I should do something about that before I answer to you."

Out of the fear that she had failed, she tries to put another suggestion on him. But no words come out. That's to be expected.

"I could've taken my own screws to my ears to stop you. It's not like the thought is adverse to me or anything but then you could just scamper off to get some more guys under your control. So the solution is rather simple. I just have to take away that weapon of yours."

Her eyes flicker down to her throat and to her horror, there was the pointed end of a screw sticking out from there. Sigyn reflexively reaches to it but it dissipates the moment her index finger grazes it. She let's out a mute's cry.

[Now for Kumagawa's rebuttal! It's definitely true that I'm only doing all this out of my own selfish desires but isn't that fine? Or rather, isn't it totally appropriate to respond that way to the ultimate selfish act? I won't pretend to act like I'm above her or anything because I haven't decided to take that dead end of a path. After all it's like you said, I have no room to judge her when I don't even understand her. No one does. But I'm far, far, far, faaaaaaar too selfish to let her just fade out of existence like that. She's my cute vice president. There are however several glaring holes in that argument of yours.]

Sigyn falls onto her rear as he inches closer with all the slowness of a predator closing in on it's prey.

[Yeah, maybe she could have manipulated the events behind the scenes so she could stop me from coming after her but somehow I don't think that's possible. She may be older than dirt but I doubt she'd go through that much needless effort when she hated needless things so much. Though I'll at least agree that she may have made considerations for if she was stopped by Medaka-chan. That may be the reason she jobbed so hard to Ihiko after she had supposedly fought him a hundred million times. Also, I'm not really in the recruitment game any more. I realized just how stupid that plan was and honestly after all that has happened, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that she knew that I would arrive at this conclusion.]

She had been backing up, still on her bottom, until she had gone right into a wall. Kumagawa kneels down to look her in the eye.

"No one else but me will be able, no, allowed to save her from herself."

At this point, it must have been that he had let her retain control over her voice because she screamed, "Are you insane?! This isn't some chump of a main character that can't see beyond a farce of a victory like Medaka! No matter how hard you try, she'll destroy you and take her life before your broken form! Even if you manage to beat her this time, she'll just keep trying like she is now! She'll keep whittling away at you until there's nothing left to stop her!"

"Maybe. But there's something I need from her before she tries something as stupid as suicide and until I get it, she and I are not allowed to die without my permission. Simple as that."

"What...what could possibly-"

[Bzzt! Sorry but that's all the time we got folks! Tune in next time for the answer to naked-apron-senpai's riddle game!]

And with that remark that destroyed the seriousness of the conversation they had, the head of a screw falls directly onto her head, taking her conscious. He stands back up, patting his pants a bit, before staring skyward.

[Well, how was that? Anshin'in-san?]

Somewhere, on some higher plane of existence that mortals and even immortals can't perceive, somebody laughs.


	4. Chapter 4

A Step Off the Chosen Path  
Negative_Science

* * *

Meanwhile, Enshuu stands over the garbage disposal in which Kihara Byouri's body was dumped and sighs exasperatedly.

"Well, it may have been exactly what to expect from a Kihara but I really didn't want to do all that to Byouri-obaasan. Hn. Hn. I know she's still alive Amata-ojisan. It wouldn't be very Kihara-like at all if she were to die so easily. I guess I should think of what to do next then. As it is, everything should freeze over now that this place has been destroyed but I don't feel like that'll be enough..."

Her clothes were stained in the waste from the disposal as well as caked in blood and mud from her wandering around the city.

Enshuu may have a fragment of common sense leftover from when she had been separated from her family but she still remains a Kihara at heart in spite of both her own and well as everyone else's opinions.

As such, that tiny amount of common sense goes by the wayside as her phones light up around her neck to give her a bit of inspiration.

She runs through the various underground tunnels to reach her destination, the hotel in which Kihara Ranshuu was beaten half to death in. As she enters the room, the scent of blood comes on strong enough to dizzy the average man. But it's less of her nature as a Kihara and more lending to the fact that she had already gotten used to the obscene amount of blood on her own clothes that let her enter easily.

She didn't know the second man but she could recognize the unmoving body of Ranshuu laying on the floor in a dark red puddle. That fragment forces a stirring in her heart as she looks at him but the devices put her back on the improper path. After all, she was not here for him. Just for the inspiration he could give, even as he is now.

She gathers her materials and ingredients and begins her work. It was simple in it's concept but an entirely different beast to employ in practice. By adding the various elements to her test tube, she had created a form of agar, a cultivator for viruses and bacteria.

That was the simple part.

"...I can get this in about 30 minutes."

Being done with the initial preparations, she starts on both the finishing touches for this first stage as well as a refreshment in one.

A regular cup of black coffee.

Her intent was to create a bit of moldy air in which to capture whatever mildew came of it and utilize it in her biological weapon.

The city was already doomed but she was ready to snuff out even the remotest of chances with this. Such an incredibly cruel method was perfect for a Kihara, even for an unqualified one as herself.

But even then, she still didn't feel satisfied. Was it because of that strange boy? That may be it. After all, he had proven earlier that such methods are useless against him. There really isn't anything for it though. The others that got sent in with her have been killed or otherwise incapacitated. Other than perhaps the one that fought with Byouri, there really isn't anyone around that can take on such a monster as him.

Even as she thought about this however, she began to realize that this was not the source of her worries.

She sipped at her coffee with a frown.

What else could it be? He may have called himself a friend of his but she didn't see it that way. Besides, he betrayed her. Though, that betrayal hadn't really seemed to set her back any. Had it been a misunderstanding on her part then? Had he really tried to save her in his own twisted way?

This wasn't like a Kihara.

This was like a Kihara at all to be concerned over someone else's life like this. Their only goal in life was to pursue the limits of science and break through them by absolutely any means necessary.

Everything else was secondary and otherwise inefficient.

To worry about some guy she had only just met was far too...normal. Not for a Kihara, mind you, but for a regular person.

She couldn't understand what the true source of it was. Not her fault considering the life she had led up till she met that joker.

Serial killers and sociopaths rarely, if ever, consider that they have an actual conscience within them and hers had been dormant for quite some time.

It could be compared to a man that had lost use of his left arm, let's say, and had gotten used to life without the limb for 20 years of his life but suddenly had feeling return to it. It would be bewildering and confusing to regain something that you had lived so long without. But perhaps that's a poor example. Enshuu would be far more concerned if she knew the name to her new-found feelings. It would be just another thing to separate her from the rest of her family.

Though such a feeling would too be separated from that norm of the abnormal.

All these thoughts had completely distracted her from realizing that the three occupants of the room had just become eight. By their very nature, even if she hadn't been removed from her surroundings, she would never have noticed the ninja that entered the room.

Each of them were among the number that she had already killed before but had that event removed from their histories by the very boy she had been thinking of.

His luck may very well be rubbing off on her.

They had thought their situation, once they came to, was rather puzzling but it made no difference to them if they could only get revenge on the one that had defeated them so soundly and return with the 'treasure' they sought. The ninjas had thought on how they were beaten and had come up with several counter-measures but with the way she is now, it may have been in vain.

But, again, it makes now difference to them.

The first of their five silently rushed up to her defenseless back with a standard short scythe aimed directly for the side of her neck.

With a blur of movement Enshuu had crouched down, grabbed her assailant's wrist, and flipped him over her back in a fashion not too dissimilar from a judo move.

She whirled around to face her enemies, devices flailing with the momentum and flashing a rainbow of glyphs and charts.

"Hn. Hn. Yes, Amata-ojisan. It would be in such a moment that a Kihara would get attacked. Sorry for ignoring you for so long."

The next ninja flashes a crowbar to her left while another swings a hammer for her tiny skull. At the very last second, she lashes out at the hammer wielder's left leg and sidesteps his flying form as he crashes into his comrade's body, sending them both into the wall away from her.

She quickly looks over at the last two, standing by for the most Kihara way of eliminating these walking dead men.

The oldest of them pulls out a small remote and presses hard on the red button on top before rushing into the fray, tossing it aside as she does so.

Her devices all go haywire. They flicker off as soon as they stop glitching out.

"An EMP?!"

In such a world, it wasn't unusual to hear of things like pocket-ready EMP devices. But to see it be used in practice was hard to accept.

Without her connection to the other Kihara personalities, a massive void filled her thoughts.

She couldn't remember a time when she had been without them. When she hadn't been able to rely on them. She was fighting with her figurative arms cut off from her.

The middle-aged woman gives no quarter as she plants a full-forced kick into her torso. Enshuu crashes into the wall with a hefty, dull thump.

"There. With that our revenge is complete," the woman says as she dusts off her hands.

The other ninjas had already gotten back up.

"So what now? Do we get back with Oumi?", one asks.

"She's fine for now. Let's just get some 'treasure' out of this Kihara girl. They have plenty of scientific knowledge that we can use," says another.

"That's just silly. It completely goes against our reason to be here. I will say though, it would be useful to get some insider knowledge to surpass them with," the third reasons.

As they all discuss what to do next with her as though she were some gilded treasure chest, Enshuu lays against the wall fiddling frantically with her phones to no avail.

Her connection was lost. Her connection was lost. Her connection was lost.

She can't act as a Kihara. She can't speak as a Kihara. She can't be a Kihara.

Her connection was lost. Her connection was lost. Her connection-

[But isn't it fine to be yourself?]

A voice comes to her thoughts, cutting straight through her panic.

[Do you really need to be like those other science lovers when you clearly meet the requirements already?]

These were the words replaying in her mind that boy spoke of a little bit after they had first met.

But she didn't agree with them.

She still wanted to be a Kihara but she knows she's only partially got the requirements for that.

[It's just the way things are.]

Yeah. That's true. But it doesn't help the situation any when she had been relying on those artificial traits for her personal needs.

[Maybe not. But I think that's fine.]

No it's not. Without that vital essence being supplied to her, she might die here.

[Say, do you know how other people get their powers where I come from?]

Their personalities or something if her memory follows? Enshuu can't really trust such-

[I'd say you're a special sort of Minus even among those guys.]

...

[You may not be able to act as a Kihara or whatever on your own but if that cruelty wasn't in you at all, then you wouldn't act on it. Even with some convoluted technomababber that beams their thoughts into your head.]

...

[It goes without saying, Enshuu-chan, that also applies to when you're without it.]

...Connection reestablished to new source.

She stands up, taking the phones from her neck and dangling them between both hands.

"She's back up again huh? Geeze she's tough."

The middle aged woman takes a few steps back to let her subordinates handle their weakened enemy.

[But that's where they messed up.]

Enshuu crouches as she readies herself for round two with these battle-hardened ninja.

[A Minus is never as dangerous as they are when the odds are against them.]

"Hn. Hn. I understand, _Kumagawa-oniichan_. At a time like this-"

They all come rushing in at her with a myriad of hidden weapons that can kill and maim in as many ways as they are varied between them.

Despite this incredibly unfortunate situation, Enshuu let loose an uncharacteristic grin.

This was not due to her being fairly emotionless or even to the fact that she was about to take them on in a particularly Kihara-like manner.

Rather it was because with this method, she could discover a path all unto herself.

She could exist as something other than a 'Kihara'.

"A Minus would do this!"

Enshuu walks the snowy, frozen streets of Baggage City without any real direction to go in.

Her previous plans have been forsaken in favor of testing her newfound abilities as a Minus. Though, she hadn't gained any strange powers or anything so ridiculous that she was aware of. Getting powers after having an epiphany during a fight was something that only really happened in some shitty manga or anime and is best left to that particular genre.

Still, she did feel _something_ during her fight against the ninja a few moments ago.

When she emulates a Kihara's or someone else's thought patterns, it only allows for her to have a blueprint of sorts, an insight into how that person thinks. However, this does not give her the intelligence nor the skills of that particular person. If she had the thought patterns of Einstein for example, she'd be able to solve equations and problems in an Einstein like way, if given the knowledge he had when he was living but not any more or less than that.

Which seems very misleading when she uses the thought patterns of Kihara Amata to use his methods of analytic combat to fight others. But it is only possible for her to use it since she has an approximate level of knowledge comparable to the late Amata. If she hadn't had that disposition as a Kihara, she likely would never be able to use his thought patterns in a fight.

This is what had made that situation at the end of the fight all the more bizarre. It shouldn't have been so easily possible to emulate people she only met within at least 5 minutes of the fight but she was able to use all three of her attackers thought patterns against them. A first for her, as she hadn't really used that method as a way to counter enemy attacks. But even that wasn't the truly strange part of it all.

As it has been explained, she can only use emulation to solve things in a manner equal to how the person she's emulating would have with the level of knowledge that she personally has acquired. In the last few minutes of the fight, she began to use the ninja's weapons with their exact level of skill and prowess. She had a precise level of insight into how they would attack and what they would do next. She even started to have flashbacks, as she was fighting them, to memories of times that she had never been through.

This may sound to be the same as how she was before but there is a key distinction to make between the two. Enshuu in the past would only be able to solve matters in a ninja like matter with her own skills as long as she was emulating them, if she did at all. But the Enshuu that fought the ninja had solved the matter without ever actually emulating anyone. She had fought in an Enshuu like way using the skills of a ninja. Skills that she hadn't known of until today.

She stops in the middle of the road and pulls out a shuriken that she had taken from one of the ninja earlier. A billboard for some sandwich shop sits atop a building nearby. Enshuu takes aim and throws the shuriken at the billboard. It veers haphazardly off course and crashes through a window on a neighboring building.

Yes. She hadn't retained those skills for much longer after she had beat them. All those memories and skills were completely gone. As though she had gained them entirely by accident and the universe corrected the mistake.

Which is exactly why she had wanted to further test this new system that she had found herself to be apart of.

She had figured that since she had made herself an enemy of all the inhabitants of this city that if she were to wander the place enough, she'd run into someone to test herself against. But no one had shown up so far.

As she walks past a shop, she looks into the window. A phone store with all the latest models borrowed from Academy City.

Enshuu had abandoned her phones back with her previous plans of snuffing out the remaining life in the city. The EMP blast had wrecked them up too much to be able to use them in emulating Kihara thought patterns. Without them, she shouldn't be able to emulate anyone's thought patterns anymore.

[Well at least you still have your complexion!]

Though even without a Kihara network to whisper advice in her ear, she still had other sources to rely on.

"But that doesn't really matter to me, Kumagawa-oniichan. I just want to see what I can do now as a Minus. Nobody is showing up to help me out with that so I don't know what to do anymore."

This was something that she had never really done before either. The Kihara thought patterns she used previously only transmitted their thoughts on her situation to her. She had only really spoken to them as one would an imaginary friend and similarly so, they couldn't really respond to her in any kind of a meaningful way. This was the first time her imaginary friend, as it were, spoke back to her.

[Hmm. Hmm. I see. How about this then?]

"Hn?"

[You were right to try to seek out people that you've made enemies out of but most of those people are probably just a bunch of meat popsicles now. And even if they had somehow made it, they wouldn't be of much use against you. But! The ones that may have survived are likely privy to you and how you think by this point, so if you want to fight them then all you have to do is think about how you were going to act before you decided on the Minus route!]

"Hn. I understand, Kumagawa-oniichan. If it was the old me, then.."

She runs to the top of a nearby building for a better look at her surroundings. Her head swivels back and forth until her eyes settle on a plant factory in the distance.

"That's where I'd be. Are you sure they'll be there?"

[Of course! You're a Minus so even if you aren't there, those Abnormals will go looking for you wherever you are but at least there you can lay out the playing field as you like. Remember, with our luck we can't afford to let the house deal the cards as they please. We gotta stack the deck, count cards, do some slick stuff by swiping cards into our sleeves whenever they aren't looking. Whatever we can do to win, we have to do since the odds of us winning are so low anyway. But that's just as well since having Lady Luck on our side is too foreign a concept for us to cope with. So do your best Enshuu-chan! I'll be rooting for you!]

She smiles a little at this. She doesn't seem to comprehend or care that he isn't actually there.

Kiharas aren't the sort of social animals that act in packs. They may work together if their goals are aligned but it wouldn't be unexpected for them to betray one another when it suits them. Or even just whenever they feel like it. But even so, it was always comforting to have that whispering influence be there to support her. Especially when it actually wishes for her success like Kumagawa does.

Though it's hard to tell if he could ever be anything like a good influence to anyone even when the Kiharas had so clearly been a bad one for her. No matter how much goodwill his ghost of a personality wants for her, he's still the best, worst Minus to have ever existed. He can't possibly be good for her.

The factory wasn't all that far away. Her original intention was to use it's facility's equipment in order to cultivate her biological weapon. She would have then had her specimen divided between the containers that were out back so as to have something of a counter-measure against sabotage. If her enemies truly did understand how she would act, they would come here soon enough.

Rather than the biological weapons, she had made some home-brewed explosives to pack the storage containers with. Oil was spread around as well so she could ignite it to have the containers slide around and fall onto whatever opponents she would find herself at odds with. Having them fall would be well within expectations for her past self but she likely wouldn't have done anything as reckless as detonate her plans just to take them out. That element of surprise could be used to her advantage. She even used the leftover explosives to create a minefield of sorts.

Within the explosive chaos that she was making out to be her battlefield was where she intended to snatch her victory from.

There were no safety measures. No back up plans. Nothing that she could use to escape from the situation should it go south. The standard things that a Kihara would think of, she hadn't bothered with.

She felt that somehow increasing her odds would just lead to her failure somehow.

Besides, she hadn't come there to be a Kihara. That had already proven to be a dead end for her. She wanted to see how different things would be as a Minus.

But that was easier said than done. She had been so much more focused on being a Kihara that any other way of living was alien to her. Never mind the fact that she didn't even have access to any of them right now.

She sips on a can of black tea despondently. It has to constantly be warmed up with her lighter as she does so.

[Hey! Hey! I thought I told you that stuff doesn't matter! Maybe you can't solve things in a Kihara like manner but that's your edge right now. The ones that'll come after you will be expecting to fight a Kihara, not a Enshuu. Granted, you probably can't stray entirely from those patterns that are common to those guys but even so, you can definitely find a way that none of them could ever handle.]

"That's easy for you to say. You haven't helped with any of this so what good will you be when they come?"

[None at all!]

The answer comes with no hesitant whatsoever. In fact, his confidence was so great that, were it possible, his response would have come long before she had ever asked about it.

"Ehhh. Then why-"

[I'm sorry. The number you have reached is out of service. Please hang up and try again.]

"But-"

[I'm sorry. The number you have reached is out of service. Please hang up and try again.]

She puffs out her cheeks and rewarms her tea for the 45th time since she had been out there.

It's something that she really should have expected. Even if he was there in person, his answer would have been the same. That's the type of guy he is. Never willing to put forth the effort to help but always willing to steal the spotlight at just the right time.

A new voice echoes outside the container Enshuu was in across the frozen desolation.

"These plant factories run on electricity. The lights, air conditioning, and circulation of the nutrient liquid have to keep going 24/7. A car battery isn't going to cut it. They must be drawing electrical power from an external source. Each and every one has to do that."

It was the maid she had knocked out earlier. Enshuu moves to look into the system of hanging mirrors she had set up before for surveillance. As she peers into one of the mirrors, she sees that the maid walking alongside a woman in a blue dress.

"Oh, that's the one that nearly killed you Kumagawa-oniichan."

[Well, not just nearly but I won't split hairs right now.]

The two Abnormals stop towards the middle of the area as they announce their plans to nobody in particular.

"We have our answer. It looks like my pride can swell once more. If we destroy this external power source, the black lights emitting the ultraviolet rays will all stop! Kihara Enshuu will be unable to complete her biological weapon!"

There really isn't anything that earns a Minus's ire like the cockiness of the elite. Thus, there was only one response that could be given.

"Idiooooooots."

[Idiooooooots.]

Enshuu pushes the mirror aside as she walks out into the open. At her appearance, they start whispering amongst themselves. She can't hear them but she can guess based on how they have been so far.

"Sorry. But I'm going to have to disappoint you guys."

She moves hunched over with her hands behind her back and a slight smile in her voice.

"I know you guys must have thought reeeeeaaaally, really hard on how to beat me but I've decided not to go with that plan anymore. I'm sorry. I do feel bad about it."

Saflee scoffs, "Oho? And why should we believe you anyway?"

"Never expected you to. That's what I was counting on," she says as she suddenly crouches down with her canned tea in hand.

"Huh? Stop trying to bluff your way out of this. We know what you're up to and we're not going to let you kill what few people are left in this city!", Maria screams.

Enshuu gives her a sidelong smirk as she responds, "Then I take that as to mean that you don't mind if your lives are taken in their place?"

The murder in her eyes puts a momentary shock to their systems. This definitely wasn't the lukewarm, hesitant girl they were expecting to take on.

Maria narrows her eyes as she takes this new information with increased caution, "This isn't how you normally are. What happened to you?"

Enshuu chuckles, "And what is it exactly that you know about how I am normally anyway? I just found a different way of living than what I had been going after before is all. My plans before were sacrificed so I could figure out how exactly I'm meant to live in walking this path."

"...This is exactly how that guy would've acted."

Maria looks over to Saflee's horrified expression. Her legs shook nervously.

"What are you talking about?"

"Maybe not exactly the same but...there was a guy that I met yesterday. He was in the tournament but he wasn't on the same level as the rest of those guys. With him, I doubt even Academy City has a way of fighting that monster."

"So what then?", Maria sneers back at Enshuu, "You think that by emulating somebody like that, you'll be able to win here?"

Enshuu stands as she ponders this.

"Hmm. What do you think, Kumagawa-oniichan?"

[Dunno! I'm glad that a pretty girl like her remembers me, the sort of guy that has a personality of wet cardboard, but it's not like I'm that dangerous. I'd lose to an infant in a game of rock, paper, scissors even if I was seriously trying to beat it. Whatever. These sexy gals can get screwed for all I care.]

Of course, this part of the conversation was only acknowledged by half of the current audience.

"Who is she talking to?"

"I don't know. She typically uses the phones that used to hang around her to somehow use the thought patterns of Kiharas but maybe she found some other way to use them? It doesn't really matter either way, considering what we have to do."

They speak as if the matter is already settled. Protagonists don't really need to concern themselves with mid-bosses after all.

[These to really have no intention of taking you seriously huh? Rude.]

But this was no longer a situation that could be contained to such simple storytelling terms and cliches.

"Hn."

[These girls are the twin incarnations of Lady Luck, my little Miss Fortune.]

"Hn. Hn."

This magically scientific world could no longer be saved from the influence of the best, worst Minus.

[They are the victorious, brutal and without mercy. You are worse. Trip and despair until you've won.]

"I understand, Kumagawa-oniichan. I'll kick the silver spoons from the mouths of these gilt-edged whores!"

With this battlecry, both parties charge at one another with reckless abandon.

As Enshuu runs toward them, she shakes her can of tea with a thumb covering the opening. She brakes suddenly as she chucks the can at them. Just before she walked out, she had stuck a small bit of her explosive into the can. Once it's wet, all it needs is a short amount of time from when it's exposed to air before it explodes. It's only enough to startle someone though, about the same as the sort of fireworks that kids will cruelly tie to an animal's tail really.

Saflee stops immediately while Maria cartwheels to the side of it's path through the air. In the middle of her cartwheel, she changes the direction of one of her legs to go swinging for Enshuu's head but the sudden explosion right beside her forced her to instinctively change her direction away from the danger.

Her instincts in this case however, were way off. A hand grazes against the trigger for the homemade mine, once more causing a change in direction. The next explosion sends debris tearing the sides of her stomache and piercing her left thigh. As she lands, her sluggish body movements show that the damage had been done. This wasn't Enshuu's aim exactly though.

"Though I'll be hard-pressed to complain."

[You should though! Things are going way too well for you!]

"Hm? Just because I'm a Minus, doesn't mean that I'll stick so strictly to how you live that life."

The flames from the last explosion ignite the oil trails leading to various container piles around them. Without the variable of friction to add to the equation, the large containers that weighed a ton each fall everywhere within sight. Several of them have the explosives within get set off, more land on top clusters of mines and get sent flying, and even more hit the surrounding buildings, causing debris to shoot straight through the metal of those containers. The entire environment was trying, with no small amount of effort on it's part, to kill all three of them.

A Kihara would certainly have calculated a safe spot in the chaos to monitor everything from.

A Minus would throw caution to the wind and charge right into the chaos, risking everything.

Which does the unqualified Kihara and newbie Minus choose?

The old and familiar? Or the new and untested?

Hopefully that's a point made clear well enough about her change in character.

She darts through the destruction, avoiding the violent, heavy death thrashing it's rage all about the place with on the spot calculations on where and when she should dodge, duck, dip, and dive.

A path clears somehow between her and Saflee, who was desperately trying to escape.

Enshuu had read up on many of the contestants on the plane ride to the city. There was little hope in taking on a woman of her caliber in a physical fight, especially with her weak, frail self.

[If you really want to see what a Minus is capable of, then you'll have to test your nerves against her.]

"Geeze, Kumagawa-oniichan. I'm already dancing around explosions and debris that weighs as much as a car. Now you tell me to fight someone that has the physique to crush me just as well as these containers can. You're really unreasonable you know."

[Hey now! You're a Minus and all but you really shouldn't pull the tsunyan act at a time like this!]

In spite of her complaints and the situation she put herself in, her smile is one that suits her age. If only she had been at an amusement park with friends or had received a positive response during some confession with a boy she liked instead of fighting in a cold, nearly dead city while in the middle of a battle where certain death is nipping so much at her that it can taste her and maybe the grin she wears now could seem less psychotic.

She runs up to Saflee's side with a multipurpose lighter that had been modified to be essentially a handheld flamethrower. A seeping swath of flames ignites some oil that burns a searing wall just behind her, burning her dress a bit. Saflee panics a little at this but not enough to completely rattle her. Her leg flashes like lighting for Enshuu's body. At the last second, Enshuu grabs onto her leg and throws her over her head. Saflee plants her arms onto ground as she lands hard and twists her other leg against Enshuu's neck, forcing her to join Saflee on the ground. A leg kicks out from under the blue dress and smacks the lighter out of Enshuu's hand. Saflee pounces on her tiny, defenseless body with her toned arms and begins to attack with all the ground and pound techniques of a mixed martial artist.

Or at least, that's how it should have gone.

At this point, the unexpected is to be expected. The impossible becomes possible. After all, once it has unequivocally been proven that there are an infinite number of universes with an infinite amount of possibilities for each one, then it also proves that the only thing that is impossible is the concept of impossibility.

Enshuu reverses the pinned hold Saflee had her in and begins lashing out with elbows and fists.

Her strength and technique in doing so was not anything like the weak amateur that she should've been. Many times, she usually had made up for a difference like that by using Amata's thought pattern. Without her phones to allow her access to that network, she should have been completely overwhelmed by a physical oriented person like Saflee. Her attacks weren't that of a master however neither was Saflee's for some reason.

It was as though she had _taken on half of Saflee's talents, skills, and overall fighting power_.

Saflee squints through the blood trickling down her face as she strikes a savage hook on Enshuu, sending her tumbling off of her. Enshuu tries to press her attack once more but a silver flash from the side forces her to step back. She tries to look for where it came from but it isn't as though things around them were calm enough for that luxury. Enshuu and Saflee fling themselves out of the way of a container that was being tossed about by the explosions. Enshuu dodges yet another flash that grazes her cheek, blood trailing from the fresh wound.

Now it was clear that this wasn't just some coincidence. Someone was attacking her a distance away from the battlefield, it seems. But this isn't quite a situation where you can just worry about snipers when other problems, currently in the form of a cartwheeling, container-bounding Maria. She bounces around the thrashing environment with the agility of a dancer. She lands on her hands right in front of Enshuu.

Enshuu doesn't even have time to react before Maria begins to spin, her legs flailing about. She ducks under them and goes to kick Maria's face but the maid lightly jumps off her hands and swings her right leg down on her, landing on the same leg after scoring a hit. The blow to Enshuu's shoulder sends her toward the ground with Maria's left leg chasing after. Despite her swiftness, her attack missed due to Enshuu's body _unnaturally changing it's direction_.

Suddenly she was no longer in that fiery, frozen city. It's a house. Sunlight beams through the windows, dust motes float down their path onto the beige carpet, and a sweet smell fills the air. The scent was difficult to place but it somehow filled her heart with a warmth that she hadn't known before. Or perhaps that's mistaken. It was familiar to her and yet not at the same time.

A voice, warmer than the scent, calls to her.

"Maria! Time for lunch!"

"Coming Mama!...Mama?"

The blistering cold wind rakes across Enshuu's face as a sudden chill runs up her back. Though this wasn't some form of alarm running through her lizard brain, it was only the snow that she finds herself laying on.

All was calm now. No more explosions or earth-shattering crashes to echo across the dead city. Just the cold silence and dull pain running through the left side of Enshuu's face. She tries to touch it gingerly but the sensation forces her to pull away.

Looking down on her was Kumokawa Maria.

"That...was a lot more difficult than what I thought it was going to be. I could hazard a few guesses as to why but if you hadn't spaced out for long enough to let me land a hit on you, then I really might have lost back there. It kinda hurts my pride a bit to admit that but it's over. You've lost, Kihara Enshuu."

She lost. Yes. This was expected once she had accepted the path of a loser. Something cold runs down her injured cheek.

[I'm sorry, Enshuu-chan. I did try to warn you.]

"...Yes. You did. It was well within expectations that I would lose. But...why Kumagawa-oniichan?"

Maria tries to remark on how useless it is to try to emulate anyone at this point but she blocks that out.

[Why you lost?]

"No. Why does it hurt so much?"

[...Because you tried. As hard as you could and with everything you could, you tried. But that's never enough for a Minus. Our destinies were predetermined from before we were even born. Against these sorts of guys, we will always lose. That's how it is.]

She bites down on her quivering bottom lip. She was a failure as a Kihara and as a Minus. That was how she felt about it. She felt that she had nothing left.

[Well, come on now! Cheer up!]

"Kumagawa-oniichan?"

[For starters, it's pretty much the main qualifier of being a Minus that you fail. So in that sense, you succeeded! That's the sort of contradictory people we are!]

Enshuu's awareness of her surroundings returns from the dullness that stagnated her mind. Maria, now joined by Saflee and the ninja girl that she fought earlier, dart their eyes and heads every which way. She props up her body in sudden realization as she turns around.

[Secondly, you've got me don't you?]

The voice she had been hearing wasn't simply in her head. It was just outside everyone else's perceptions. Or perhaps it'd be more accurate to say that _his presence was made to never exist to anyone else but Enshuu._

[And with that, your favorite oniichan will save you from these elites!]

Dressed in nearly all black outside of the white scarf blowing out behind him, Kumagawa Misogi enters the fight just at the right time to steal all the spotlight.


	5. Chapter 5

Subtracting One's Values  
Return_To_Origin

* * *

But his appearance wasn't as such that it'd make his enemies pause overly long. On the contrary, it just made them jump at the chance to slay the demon before them before it did the same to them.

"Quick, before he can summon his steamrollers!", Saflee screams to the other two.

Neither of them saw Kumogawa's fight but they understood the urgency in beating him and sprinted to take him out.

[It sucks a bit that I won't be able to live up to your expectations but can't really say I'm too sorry about it when I'll be showing you something a bit better! A good magician doesn't use the same tricks twice after all!]

A sword with a gold, glowing blade appears in his right hand as he raises it in the air above him and slams it into the ground with all his might, shattering the earth around them. Chunks of concrete and metal go flying around midst the dust that billows from where the sword struck.

Maria and Oumi dodge the shrapnel and dive further into the fray while Saflee once more stays back.

"Yeah, I'm not so good with this kind of ranged area attacks. They'll probably be able to just chase him over to me and I'll smash his face in again. But what am I going to do if he tries that trick again? Maybe I should go in there?"

[Oh, I wouldn't worry about that!]

Her instincts go into overdrive as she whips a leg out behind her but finds nothing but air.

[Geeeeze. It's like you weren't listening at all!]

In the time that she had kicked, Kumagawa had appeared right in front of her face.

[A good magician never drags out the same old tired trick he just used in the previous act. Instead, he denies everyone's expectations with something never seen before!]

He lashes out at Saflee with a savage, though unskilled, punch to her face. She spins and tumbles over onto the ground but makes a quick recovery as she leaps back up and dashes toward him. She attempts a backhanded punch at him though he just ducks underneath her arm. A feint. Her powerful kick sends him flying back into the settling cloud of smoke.

His body is flung right back out with a spidery Maria and an airborne Oumi chasing after him. But before they can get close, blades of various make and design spring from the ground between them like trees. Maria manages to change her direction and while Oumi is no esper, her agility allows her to bounce through the bloom of swords to reach her now standing target.

Oumi swings her gardening trowel for his throat and, to her surprise, he makes no effort to avoid it. Blood sprays from the wound all over her and the pristine snow. As his body hits the ground, the blades disappear and her partners come running up.

"Hey! What have you done?! I know you're a ninja but even this-"

Oumi turns to Maria's shouts, "No, I was honestly under the assumption that he was going to dodge that one. But, it doesn't really matter when he's clearly with that Kihara girl, does it?"

Maria's face scrunches up in frustration, "Yeah, he was bad but even so we should have just knocked him out and-"

Their ethical debate is interrupted by Saflee brushing past the two of them. She stands over the corpse for a moment before rapidly and heavily curb-stomping his head.

"Hey!"

By the time they were able to pull her away, his head had been turned to an unrecognizable paste.

"Why?!"

"Neither of you understand! He's not the sort that dies when he's killed," she says shivering.

"What the hell kind of sense does that make?!"

[Yeah, are you feeling alright?]

All three of them freeze right on the spot as they hear the shuffling of clothes out of their sight.

[Not dying when you're killed? That's just silly! Everybody dies. May not be today or tomorrow or even for several decades but eventually everyone dies. I just happen to do it more than the average bear!]

They finally turn toward their enemy, completely unscathed and unaffected by their previous assault, as he smiles at them.

"What...the hell?"

"We have to bury him! Or throw him in a vat of concrete! Something that he can't just simply revive from!", shouts Saflee as she discards her fear and rushes at him.

[Hmm. Yeah. That might be a good method but I'll only be able to give that a C+. After all,]

In the blink of an eye he had managed to travel to the other side of his opponents, now all simultaneously pinned to the floor by his screws to their clothes.

[I'm just a some loser mortal. Man, I really couldn't win with any of my new tricks against you lot!]

He moves past the squirming women as he reunites with his new friend.

[Are you alright, Enshuu-chan?]

He offers his hand to her. She stares at it as though it were some alien appendage.

"Why? I had...tried to kill you after I had thought you betrayed me so why do you keep being so nice to me?"

[Hmm? Haven't I been helping you out since the start?]

"I never realized that it was you. I just thought it was your thought patterns telling me how it is that you would respond to me and my situation. I thought by pretending like I was one of your kind, it might give me some sort of edge over everyone. In the end, I was only clinging to my old ways to use how it is you did things as a crutch."

[Oh. Well that's perfectly fine for friends to do!]

She looks at him with confusion, irritation, doubt, and a mixture of various other feelings in her heart. To be 'friends' or to have them was a concept that as a Kihara, she rejected on an instinctual level. She just can't accept that anyone would ever be kind to her for such vague reasons.

"Again, why?! I haven't once thought of you like that!"

[Really? You were smiling an awful lot earlier when we were wandering this place.]

"That's...that doesn't count."

[Oho, why is that? Just because you were only considering me as some imaginary friend? That still has the word, friend, in that you know. But that's fine! Even that tsunyan side of you is cute! Also, you have yet to slap my hand away so no matter what you say, I can still see that the chance is there!]

His offered hand hadn't moved from the start. Until this moment, she had lived her life without caring for anyone else outside her family. It's funny when you think about it. So eager to try out the sort of things that would make the average mad scientist piss themselves and yet that same person is shaking in fear of a helping hand. The sort capable of exploring the unknown and yet also afraid it.

She reaches out, stops, and continues to gingerly take his hand in hers.

But that's exactly how Kumagawa described the character of a Minus. Infinitely contradictive.

All at once, far too quick for anyone to react to, Kumagawa flings Enshuu violently away from him, sending her crashing into a wall some distance away. She lays there crumpled up as she looks over at him in dazed confusion.

Well. It has been mention what kind of guy Kumagawa is. Who could expect any different given the situation?

Not a moment sooner from when she was thrown, a bulky mass crashed down on the spot they were just having their conversation. Once the dust cloud had settled, Kumagawa found himself face to face with a dinosaur.

[WAWAWAWAWAWA! HEY! HANG ON! I'M NOT ALAN GRANT! WHAT'S WITH THIS PLACE?! I THOUGHT VAMPIRES WERE CRAZY BUT THIS WORLD JUST KEEPS ON ONE-UPPING ITSELF! I-]

Kumagawa's rant stops short as the dinosaur rushes it's long neck past him for it's preferred target, Kumokawa Maria. He turns his head to what anyone could be sure was to be carnage with puffed cheeks. The sight of it took his breath away. A man, torn and bloodied, had jammed his left arm into it's head just before it could tear the girl apart.

Despite just how much energy and life would be required for such an attack, it was easy to tell that the man was already being ushered away by the reaper. A left arm, his upper body, and flayed skin the price for the battle. But even at such a point, he had expended strength he didn't have to kill the monster. Whether it was out of hate for the thing or to save the girl or both, it was unclear.

Even as the beast began to dissolve like a crumbling sandcastle, the man shook the head around, as though disgusted by it's contact with him, until it flew and tumbled across the snow. It's slam against a ruined building sounded for his fight to be done and with that he collapses, his blood pooling all about him. With that kind of skill and power, he might have survived if he had gone about things another way but that simply wasn't what he wanted.

A tearing sound comes from behind him but Kumagawa does nothing to stop it's source. He hadn't the right to. Maria comes running to his side, tears flying off her face.

"SENSEI!"

Kumagawa watched on as the man uttered his last words, it's meaning lost to him in the chilling breeze. The two remain in their respective spots as they watch the beast slayer's body getting slowly buried by the snow. Their somber moment of silence was just a mere moment in time, frozen in place only by those that held it.

Time can be such an uncomfortable thing. It shapeshifts on you if aren't careful. It'll elongate itself to choke you in a moment, become razor sharp to bleed you the next, and transition to be infinitely heavy so it can crush you in yet another instant. But even so, time moves cruelly on without regard to life.

"I knew."

Kumagawa blinks in surprise as the portrait before him regains it's composure. She shakes and shivers more from the indignation at the man's fate than the cold.

"I KNEW BECAUSE I KEPT LOOKING INTO IT! YOU DID LOTS OF THINGS TO HELP US, AND EVEN LEFT SECRETLY TO PREVENT US FROM BECOMING MURDERERS, SENSEI! YOU'VE BEEN BOTHERED BY THIS ALL THE TIME, ABOUT WHO HAD SET UP THAT MURDERER! SENSEI, ARE, ARE YOU GOING TO APOLOGIZE TO US NOW!?"

Her voice cracks as she scrapes her lungs and vocal cords just to release this pain.

"BUT I KNOW THINGS THAT YOU DON'T KNOW EITHER, SENSEI! THOSE LIVES YOU SAVED ARE WALKING DOWN DIFFERENT PATHS! EVERYONE IS GRATEFUL TO YOU! EVERYONE IS WORRIED ABOUT YOU! IT WASN'T FUTILE! WE DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH YOU HATE YOURSELF, SENSEI, BUT THIS ISN'T FUTILE AT ALL!"

She screams and screams at his peaceful expression. Of course, there was no answer.

"DAMN IT, DON'T DIE WITH A SATISFIED LOOK! I'LL BEAT YOU UP! I'LL BEAT YOU TO DEATH IF IT WILL WAKE YOU UP! BESIDES, I HATE PEOPLE LIKE YOU THE MOST! THAT'S WHY YOU HAVE TO GIVE IT YOUR ALL! BUT, WHY…WHY MUST YOU JUST SIMPLY DIE LIKE THAT!"

There was nothing more to be said. For none of the present company. All this was, was one girl's deafening lamentation at the loss of someone dear to her. It was ugly. Such raw emotion tends to be nothing but. It's not something to be admired or sought after. But regardless of how it may be, it's still a precious moment that not even a wild card like Kumagawa can laugh at. He turns away from it and walks in the now unconscious Enshuu's direction.

"...Wait."

And so he does.

[Yeah?]

"That thing you did after Oumi and Saflee killed you," she whispers with all the desperate hope her despair could bring her, "Can you use it on other people?"

[...Yeah.]

The furious sounds of Maria leaping from the ground and racing for Kumagawa's still form stave off the silence.

"Then, then please! You have to help him!"

Kumagawa says nothing.

"I'll do anything! I don't care if it means my body or my life but you have to bring him back!"

She couldn't see his face but the sudden shiver down her spine wasn't from the climate.

[Ohoooooooo? Anythiiiiiing huh? That's quite a dangerous thing you just said you know? You may not be able to marry that sensei of yours, or anyone else for that matter, after I'm through. You really want that, you stripper pole lover?]

Her jaw clinches so hard, several cracks and pops could be heard. Her nails digging into her palms let her blood flow freely.

"As...as I said, whatever it takes to bring him back-"

He rounds on her with a look of disdain.

"Are you really that retarded?"

"Wha-"

"Do really believe that sensei of yours died just so you could spit on his determination by surrendering yourself to a guy like me? I may not know the circumstances between you two and whatever the hell that thing was but I do know that he chose to die this way. This is what that kind of conviction brings when it comes to revenge."

Maria was shocked at his sudden change in character but now she was just pissed.

"So what?! I don't care about something like that! Yeah, I'm just some selfish idiot that wants to bring him back no matter what happens! But I still don't care even knowing that-"

"Does that make you feel better about the whole situation? Putting on the airs of someone with a moral high ground by degrading yourself for sympathy votes? It doesn't change the facts. He didn't just give his life to take that thing, he gave it to save you too. Granted it was just a matter of convenience that he was able to save you as well then but even before now when Enshuu-chan knocked you out and was going to do worse to the ninja girl, he put his revenge aside for just long enough to save the two of you."

"That-"

"Doesn't matter? His wish to see you alive and well being put ahead of what was his literal life's work matters so little to you? Man you really are worthless. My power doesn't bring the dead back to life, it just simply makes it so the event that I, or someone else, had died didn't happen. I make his death nonexistent then I would also be making all that work and determination go with it. He chose his death. It's not up to me to deny him that."

"You're really telling me that you've never done something like that for someone you care for?"

"Hmm. Yeah I guess I have quite a few times. Though I wouldn't go as far as-"

"Then what gives you the right to tell me that bringing him back is selfish then?!"

"Because I was the one that died in those circumstances."

Maria is taken aback for barely half a second before she goes back to being angry.

"So what."

"So nothing. It doesn't matter. None of this matters. You don't care about my reasons. I don't care about yours. I refuse to make his death nonexistent because I'm an asshole and I don't like you and I just plain don't wanna do it. Let's just leave it at that."

"Because you don't like me? You're really going to just let him die for that!"

"Let him die? You still don't get it? He's already dead. Even if I wasn't here, I'm sure this is exactly where events would have led to. My power shits on the natural order of things and you really want me to involve him in that?"

She slumps to her knees now. Tears have long since stopped flowing.

"I just...I just wanted to see him again. I knew somewhat that this is what he was likely going to do but even so I thought that I might be able to stop him if I could just talk to him. I didn't want this."

Kumagawa looks past her at the man's snow buried outline.

"Doubt he really wanted this situation either. It's what he chose despite his feelings. I believe the saying is, when seeking revenge, prepare two graves."

"That would be like him. He left my school after he killed someone that attacked him. It wasn't as if anyone blamed him for it. It was self defense. He was still allowed to have his teaching license. But even so, he quit so other students wouldn't take that example as being a valid reason for taking a life. Heh. Even in this case, he likely died so no one like me would think that killing for revenge should be an option."

"Doubt he went that far into it. Though maybe he did die for that reason. Maybe it was so those other guys wouldn't go after you and those other students of his if he lived through it. Maybe the fight was so tough that he hadn't an option in surviving it. Regardless of the reasons, he died for his revenge all the same. And that's that. Like I've mentioned before, I hardly knew the guy but I doubt he'd want you to go so far for his sake. Even in the case that I did it as a freebie, I don't think he'd be happy with it. It'd be like if you had some test that you studied your ass for, one with your future on the line, and it turned out after the fact it was just some practice test that didn't count for shit."

Her hands ball back into clenched fists.

"I get it. You don't have to keep beating a dead horse. My problems and wishes matter to you as much as yours does to me right now. I...shouldn't be trying to make someone else shoulder that burden."

Kumagawa's face relaxes for the first time since their argument began.

[Well, hey, as long as you understand that much! It's been fun and all but I think I'll just take my loli from over there and go if you don't mind.]

Maria laughs sardonically, "Is that why you won't grant my wish then? Because you're a lolicon?"

[Hey! That's just plain slander! I'm not that small a man. My heart is big enough to welcome all women of any shape, size, or age. Hell, I might even disregard gender if they're cute enough.]

Her laugh now, while not quite there yet, was nearly entirely genuine.

"You really are a strange guy."

[So I've been told,] he replies as he turns to go back to Enshuu.

But he stops dead in his tracks. Maria, confused, tilts her head so as to see beyond his frame and sees a familiar face. Marian Slingeneyer's face to be exact.

The other two girls had already gotten free from Kumagawa's restraints by this point and had run up to Maria's side, staring with fear at Marian.

She had been heavily injured prior to this. Gauze loosely covers an eye and one of her legs was dragging across the snow. Her condition wasn't necessarily a cause for alarm however it was what she was carrying that caught everyone's eye.

A golden scabbard of Norse design containing a sword within. The pressure it gave made them feel as if it was squeezing onto their hearts. Despite her beaten and torn body just with that sword she carried, she was able to set off the natural alarms in anyone's heads to run as far away as possible.

"...Doesn't look like we can talk peacefully here," Maria uttered around a dry throat.

[I know right? These guys are really pulling out all the stops if they're going as far as to summon Attila the Hun as Saber to kill us. Though, she looks a lot different in person than from how she is in game. Didn't think she'd be so short.]

"Do you ever take anything seriously? How'd I let myself get beat by this guy?", Oumi sighs.

Saflee laughs, "That's probably why he was able to beat us. But still. Can we count on you for this fight, mister screw-wielding pervert?"

[Eh? Me? I dunno. Having me on your side is like having an ever-present omen of defeat hanging over your heads. Do you really want me on your side?]

"Odds don't look good enough to be picky," Oumi counters.

[Alrighty then. Even though it's my general policy not to ally myself with the strong, that's all just a matter of perspective in the end. After all, you guys are actually pretty weak compared to miss Attila over there.]

"Right. So here's how we're going to-"

[Stooooooooop! If you try to explain what we're going to do with our enemy being gracious enough to wait for you to finish, then we're really going to lose! Do you not read manga or any other piece of literature? Or is the stereotype that physical types are dumb true, miss muscle lady?!]

"Muscle lady? Whatever. What do you expect us to do then?"

[What else could we do at a time like this? WE CHARGE RIGHT IN!]

In less than the blink of an eye, Kumagawa makes the distance between himself and Marian zero. She wasn't just standing around patiently however. The arm holding the scabbard was raised in the air as she looked down on her attacker with cold eyes.

"Fill."

The moment she uttered this one word, all hell broke loose. Lightning stuck her sword and an explosion rocked the environment. A blinding flash blasted their eyes as shockwaves burst from every direction. The ground shook and snow flurried off the ground. The flash was just for a moment but it distorted space and made reality skip like a record.

Coincidentally, Kumagawa was not more than two feet from the chaos that Marian brought to her side and as such he was blown clear past Maria and friends, crashing and tumbling all over the place.

"Ah geeze! Whatever that was, I'll have to agree with the pervert's assessment of the situation. WE JUST HAVE TO SMASH HER FACE IN BEFORE SHE CAN DO ANYTHING MORE!"

Saflee's warcry as she began to sprint at Marian full tilt shook the other two from their shock.

"Hey wait a second!"

"We can't afford to be hasty around something-"

The unnervingly calm voice of Marian speaks over their attempts to stop their comrade.

"It really doesn't matter what you try. You're all going to die here anyway."

Marian's thumb flicks the blade at her side from it's sheath by a few negligible millimeters. It wasn't as showy as before. In fact, there was a distinct lack of any sort of visual effect. It was as exciting an action as picking up a pen from a desk.

And yet, that was all it took to stop the hearts of everyone besides Maria and Marian.

The crimson light that beamed from the scant bit that was shown between the scabbard and the hilt blinked out as the sword slid back into it's sheath with a small clink. Silently, Marian points the still sheathed sword down at her enemy. The murder in her stare was enough to nearly bring Maria into despair.

Just how is it that one expects to fight something like that? Never mind surviving that attack of the soul, a normal person simply can't counter something of that level. It's like fighting an earthquake or a tornado. It was impossible.

So, considering the situation, why was it the one guy suited for such a fight was playing possum?

Kumagawa could easily beat her. Whether it's as direct as using his screws or hands to make her submit or as roundabout as letting her kill him as many times as it takes to break her spirit, he could do it without any problems. The main issue lay in his motivation. He felt that it would be a waste of time to try to crush this brown girl. There were prior commitments to consider, after all.

He watches on as they talk to each other. Surely something explaining the phenomena behind the sword. Kumagawa doesn't pay attention to any of it.

But even so, it would be something of a disservice to the man that just gave his life to protect that girl if he were to let her die so easily. Letting her die to something that could put up less of a fight would be better. It's a matter of principle of his to protect the weak but in terms of who is actually labeled as weak in his eyes was just a simple matter of comparison.

Between his apathy and principals, it was all far too much a pain in the ass for him to think about.

After all the traveling he's done and the things he's been through just to find Ajimu, he's incredibly tired. Now, so as to give nobody the wrong idea, Kumagawa would be this lazy in exactly this situation even if he wasn't tired. It's just in his nature to give up.

The blade had slid out far enough to show it's edge, despair and impending death loom over everyone else but Kumagawa as he stifles a yawn.

It may sound odd but he is constantly having to fight the urge to give up any time the feeling strikes him, which is really any time he happens to be conscious. His strong will is only as such because of this. Because he's always at odds with his self-defeatist tendencies.

He manages to gather the will to stand when a sound somewhat akin to a ball ringing off a metal bat resonates in the ears of everyone present. Space had just been cracked open right by Marian as a hand extends itself though and grabs onto Marian's sword hand. She immediately flees from the perversion of reality like a particularly skittish girl from a cockroach.

[Huh?]

Even he felt that the situation was odd but the strangest thing wasn't what just happened but rather the sudden realization that everything until now was what was truly odd.

"… I finally caught up."

From the crack in the sky, came a quiet voice with such an unshakable resolve that it surprised Kumagawa even further.

"It may be too late, and it took me a lot of time to get in here. Even so, I've caught up to you, Gremlin. You told me the coordinates of this distorted space you created. Since I've caught up, I won't let you do as you please. My right hand has the destructive power to destroy what you control."

The cracks spread further and further.

The voice becomes stronger and stronger.

"That's the line. Up 'till now, it's all been a world managed by your rules."

Pieces of reality fall from that space as the hand forcibly expands the opening.

"So now."

The newcomer steps through the space like a knight striding in to slay a demon.

"Now, we're going to finish things by my rules!"

[...Well, that's a main character if I've ever seen one. What kind of asswipe thinks making that kind of a scene is cool to pull at the last second like this? What a narcissistic idiot,] he mutters to himself as he watches on from the ground.

The world had changed with the boy's appearance. They were no longer in that freezing storage yard. All around them was concrete walls and chain link fences.

[So, we're in one of the arenas huh. Haven't fought in this one so I don't really have that much familiarization with the place. Well. At least I don't have to worry about Enshuu-chan's body freezing over. It wouldn't really matter when I could just rezz her here and now but I'd rather get her out of harm's way first. But still...having to lug a girl popsicle may be a fantasy that I didn't know I wanted however putting the act of carrying a mass of iced flesh sounds pretty cumbersome. Oh well. Guess I'll just hit up everyone else here while I'm at-]

His eye catches Marian's sword peeking out from it's sheath. He tenses up, ready to fight back, but then he notices it.

 _He hadn't died_. Nor had anyone else for that matter.

"That attack is triggered by the fear of that powerful magic, so it will not work on me. I know that magic is not something that will hit me no matter what. With the power of my right hand…no, as long as I have the will to clench my fist, I can brush aside or negate it."

[What the hell…]

He looks back at the corpses of the two girls he had fought before. But they were no longer corpses. Breath returned to their diaphragms and their eyes opened wide as they came back to life.

[No really. What the hell is this?]

From what the boy said...he had made the magic of the sword nothing. Which in turn brought back the ones slaughtered by it's terrifying presence. That may not exactly be what happened but that's how he saw the situation regardless. Suffice to say, he was thoroughly confused.

This boy was unmistakably a protagonist. One, that to his eyes at least, was just a normal boy and yet was armed with something comparable to his own screwed up Minus in terms of it's function.

Someone that self-righteous shouldn't have that capability to be, no. That's wrong. A Minus is a Minus no matter how they may act. What it was is the fact that Kumagawa was absolutely sure of this guy being a protagonist so there shouldn't be any reason why he could be a Minus. Even if it were possible, the similarity of their powers called too much into question for him to readily accept. So there was only one conclusion that Kumagawa could reach.

 _His cute vp had given the main character of this world some distorted form of Hundred Gauntlets._

[...That's just cruel. How could you give me such a loving present as though I held a special place in your heart and yet just give the same one away to some shitty MC of an urban fantasy series? That just hurts me deeply, Anshin'in-san! Well. We can talk about your punishment for cheating on me later. For now though, I'll just have to nab my loliscicle and-]

He looks over in the direction where she had lay in, finding nothing.

Could she have been just another part of this massive illusion? No. He felt that Kagun's knowledge of her made it so that she should in fact exist and with the addition of Byouri being there, it made it that much more plausible that she should've been in the city to begin with.

Ignoring the battle in front of him, he walks up to Maria's dazed side.

[Hey, hey! Stripper girl! I'll throw you some singles if you answer a quick question for me!]

"Whoa! You're, you're still here? Thought you would have run off," she said, apparently too emotionally tossed about by what's been happening to get angry at his continued slander of her character.

[Enshuu-chan, do you know where she went?]

"Hm? That little Kihara? She ran off."

[Cool. Cool. See ya then!]

"You're going to leave now! You don't think that he'll need help?!"

He had begun to walk off but he stops and tilts his head back at her.

[Not really? I mean, I _could_ help but he seems to have a handle on things. Wouldn't want to step on any toes here you know? Have a fun life!]

She tries to stop him but before she could get a word out, he had disappeared from sight.

Enshuu rests her battered body in a building she chose at random. She couldn't hang around that insanity. Plus...she wasn't really sure of how she ought to treat Kumagawa at this point.

They were friends. He betrayed her. They were enemies. He saved her.

It was obvious to her that he wasn't an enemy anymore though. But considering how fast this relationship of theirs, as well as her personality, was changing, it's something that'd trouble anyone. That and should she still be calling his name with the oniichan added to it?

It wasn't so much a matter of whether it was embarrassing for her, she could have done it for Kamijou Touma had they talked back there, but rather it was an issue of how he would react to it.

Frozen air floats from her lips as she sighs.

It doesn't really matter. She won't be seeing him again anyway. While he's occupied by that sword woman, she'll be picked up in a bleeding-edge type of helicopter that flies as fast as most modern jets to be sent back to her private little corner of Academy City. Now that she's a little bit more self-aware, however, she sees that it was just barely being shy of a prison.

They had kept her there to make sure she wouldn't go off doing dangerous things. May sound a little off for a Kihara to be kept out of danger but she had no awareness of the things she does. She might have gone out and slaughtered a kindergarten school for a small experiment or for fresh bodies.

What she felt at this new-found realization was not anger or sadness. Just disappointment. She was disappointed that her family had been so cold as to restrict her research in such a manner. They all loved science so why would they try to keep her from it? Why would they keep her from being closer to them?

She thought about it.

She thought about it some more.

An answer comes to her.

She had been kept from science before. It was the main reason she had been able to learn as much as she had on her own. Today, she had been separated from the network that allowed her to become closer to being a Kihara and while it did initially put her at a severe disadvantage, she was able to learn of another path she could take. Something potentially stronger than the systems within Academy City. Maybe even stronger than the ones outside of it as well.

She can't go any further in being a Kihara as she is missing the qualifying parts but she has the possibility to go even further than that in becoming a Minus. Was that it? They weren't trying to stop her from progressing. They were trying to give her another option. Of course, there's no way a Kihara would actually feel anything like familial bonds between each other but her naivete blinds her from that aspect.

She smiles at her delusion and gingerly stands up from her position on the floor.

"Now to go find Kumagawa-oniichan. Hopefully, he didn't lose in the first move and run off."

[...Do you really have so little faith in me, Enshuu-chan?]

She turns around and stares at Kumagawa's pained face for a moment before turning back around.

"Yes. Hopefully, he doesn't meet my expectations for him. Hopefully, he at least got further than just an attempt at an attack before he loses and runs away because he's too lazy to finish what he starts."

[Why were you even trying to make it sound like you didn't know when you've seen that much?! Even without those phones you're still able to cut me so deep! But I guess I should expect as much from Enshuu-sensei-chan!]

"...Again with the additional honorifics? Please stop that Kumagawa-oniichan, people may get the wrong idea and think we're friends."

[We aren't?! Even after we had so much fun together in fighting those guys? Are you still embarrassed over not knowing that I was there?]

She tenses up and scratches her cheek.

"All you did was talk and talk. You didn't help with anything."

[Oho? Avoiding the question? Looks like I hit the nail on the head then huh.]

"Say, can I ask you something?"

[Still avoiding it? Well whatever. For you, I'll ignore that particularly embarrassing moment of yours. At least for now. I'll probably bring it up later when I'm bored. What?]

"Can...I come with you?"

[...Aren't you returning with that family of yours?]

"Well. I've decided that if I'm going to get any closer to being a Kihara, then I should research the systems outside of Academy City's. The one you fall under seems to work somewhat for me so I'd like to explore that a bit."

[Hmm. Yeah, guess I can't just say it's not my fault here huh,] he mutters while he scratches his head and avoids eye contact for a second, [I...can't.]

"Eh? Why not Kumagawa-oniichan?"

[Ah, well. Should be saying that I shouldn't rather than can't but I'm not the type you should be learning from. I mean, I can say without a doubt that I'm the worst guy you'll ever meet. Plus, I have a lot on my plate already without having to worry about teaching someone. Doubt a guy that didn't learn a thing in school can really teach either for that matter.]

"Most of that sounds like excuses since you feel too awkward to tell me no outright."

[Guh. Always telling it like is, huh.]

"Well. Just tell me what it is you're trying to do and if it is honestly out of my league, then I'll go home."

[Really? I have my doubts as a fellow Minus on that one but oh well.]

He jumps up to sit on the table opposite of where Enshuu's chair is.

[I'm trying to stop someone with power enough to take on whole pantheons of gods without breaking a sweat. She's so overpowered that she could probably take on Saitama's serious series.]

"Who's Saitama?"

[From One-punch Man. Do you-never mind, never mind. Anyway, she's far stronger than that sword girl that was here today.]

"Okay. Even if she's that powerful, it's hard for me to put that into perspective. People can hardly feel the enormity of the vastness of space even when they look at pictures of the solar system and have the measurements in front of them."

[Oh. Yeah I guess so. Then, someone mentioned magic gods earlier. Know what that is?]

"No?"

[Doesn't matter. Just know that All Fiction, the Skill I have to turn anything into nothing, is just a distorted version of one of the two Skills she gave me. Of which, there are 12,858,051,967,633,862 by the way.]

"12-what? That's just-"

[Absurd. I know. Trust me I know. Just to give you an even better frame of reference, my Skills the last time she and I fought were All Fiction and my original Minus, Bookmaker. A Skill to make anyone as weak as me on every level imaginable. Both of these skills were only enough to seal her for 3 years. That's how absurd the power difference is here. She was hit by an attack, the last I saw her, that was capable of having damage that couldn't be healed from. I couldn't even use All Fiction to make the wounds nothing. She got cut in half by that. Yet, she's still alive somewhere in this world.]

"What?! I get that you're a Minus so you'll jump into things like that, but just what possesses you to try to stop someone like that? It's like trying to stop the expansion of the universe with a pebble."

He doesn't respond. His head hangs low enough that his long hair obscures his eyes. He stays silent for a long time. Enshuu felt like she might have asked something bad and was about to apologize when he speaks up once more.

"Because I was fool enough to fall in love with her...and fool plenty still to try to stop someone like that from suicide."

None of his usual playful self could be heard in that voice. If she wasn't looking right at him, she could swear she was listening to someone else. Someone far older and worn out than how he usually acts.

"She's been an existence not equal to anyone else for a very, very long time. The years she's lived outstretches those units of distance between celestial bodies that you were talking about a second ago. Her wanting to die is...understandable. Anyone would want to kill themselves out of sheer boredom at that point I think. Which is probably why I fell for her. Our personalities are nearly mirrored, just a few extra or fewer cracks here and there between the two of us. That's exactly why I won't let her die."

His hands clench onto the edges of the table.

"It's her fault for making me fall in love with her when she knew just how easy it is for me to love any girl that smiles my way even if they made the mistake of doing it for someone behind me. Her fault for getting me to actually care even more than what I do superficially for everyone else when she asked me to kill her. Her fault for giving me hope when she bargained for my original Minus with an ability that she said could overwhelm someone as strong as Medaka. Her fault when she gave me hope again when she passed Hundred Gauntlets and Unskilled to me, telling me that I was the only one that kept me from winning. It's all HER goddamn fault. So I won't let her just do as she pleases, as selfishly as she does."

He holds an elongated screw, pointed to the ceiling like a knight pointing his sword at some unseen enemy.

"I'll take those trillions of Skills on and, one way or another, curse her to be a normal girl that'll live a normal life and die a normal death. I'll trample on that wish of hers without a care in the world."

His arm hangs back down at his side. Only now does he look at Enshuu. The edge he had held in his voice grows duller as he speaks to her.

"Which is also why I can't involve anyone else in this. I don't even know if I'll be able to protect this universe from her, let alone herself from her. So go home. Go be the best little mad scientist you can be and forget about me."

"No."

Her unhesitating response shocks him so much that the deja vu gives him whiplash.

"Um-"

"No."

"Yeah I heard you the first time it's just-"

"No."

"Okay, can you please-"

"N. O."

"Look-"

"Niet."

This exchange goes on for quite awhile longer than anyone present could expect so as anyone would expect, Kumagawa gets fed up and screws Enshuu's clothes to the wall.

[COULD YOU PLEASE. PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR, CHOCOLATE SPRINKLES, SYRUP, AND A CHERRY ON TOP LET ME TALK FOR A SECOND,] he asks, gasping for breath.

She may be intelligent enough to have several doctorates but she can still be as obstinate as anyone else her age. But his anger has stunned that out of her for just long enough for her to just simply give him a nod.

[Why no? You heard the story. And you said it yourself, it's too large in scale for you get involved in.]

She was still fairly shell-shocked so he released his hold on her so she could be free.

"Um. It's just that, you'll be pretty useless on your own right?"

[That's...neither here nor there.]

"Whatever the case, you still need information on this world if you expect to get by. Let me help."

He thinks on this for a time comparable to his earlier silence.

[Ehhhhh, still no. There really is too much going on for me to try to take on a young padiwan so I'm really sorry, like actually seriously sorry, but-]

"Padiwan?"

He waves his hand dismissively.

[Star Wars.]

"What's that?"

Now his silence is about the length of the last two put together.

"Um, Kuma-"

[Don't. Just don't.]

"But Kumaga-"

[NO. Look, do you even watch movies?! That's an American classic right there!]

"Oh? Sorry, I'm not really into foreign movies."

[Oh really now? Is that a fact? Well how about Akira? Or Jin Roh? Naussica? You've seen those?]

"Well, no but-"

[Oh to hell with all this. You're going to come with me you heathen.]

"What?! Why because of that?!"

[Because right now, your very existence is an affront to all that I hold sacred and until I've corrected this mistake, you'll be traveling with me,] he says as he walks over to the exit.

"Oh. Well, alright then?"

She gets up and begins to follow him when he stops in the doorway.

"Hm? What is it?"

"...It's…hard for me to say but ah thanks. For being so stubborn about helping me. You might regret it before the end, well definitely, but yeah thanks."

It was incredibly awkward sounding. As though he hadn't really thanked someone like this for a long time. She just smiles and pushes him out the frame.

The complete incomplete Minus and the qualified unqualified Kihara. Against someone like Anshin'in, their team-up didn't mean much but to everyone else it may as well be like if the guy with an unbreakable shield and the guy with the spear to pierce through everything joined forces. This was the start to a very ugly and dangerous friendship.

Inside the Windowless Building in Academy City was the city's mastermind. Adult and child. Man and woman. Saint and sinner. Aleister Crowley. He was a man of many contradictive appearances. He floats inside his life support tube and reviews all that happened in Baggage City with a frown on his smooth face. There's an unknown variable making it's way in. He seemed like a particularly high threat but it was the name he had dropped that was deserving of even more attention. Enough so that he couldn't stop himself from saying it despite knowing that she was listening. She always was.

"Ajimu."

"You rang, Edd? Though, I really do wish that you'd call me Anshin'in."

A girl that appeared to be of high school age wearing a typical school uniform came out of thin air right in front of his tube.

"...Did you cut your hair?"

"Ah! Yes I did! How kind of you to notice."

Her voice was sickeningly sweet. It was like an efficient flower's poison in how it could draw one in before it suffocates them. No one else but the one's that knew her would know that the sweetness was just a thinly veiled mask.

"Who is that and why is he here in my world?"

"Oh? You aren't going to ask why I'm here?"

"I made the mistake of saying your name so that would be my fault. Now answer my questions."

Her laugh is reminiscent of a dying bird's last few chirps.

"Oh Edd. You've always been so rude to me. Even though I thought we had already established the hierarchy here."

Her face nor tone changed. But all the same the air grew colder and stuffier as she stared holes in him.

His face nor tone changed. But if you were to peer into the tube, you'd see his fingers just barely containing the nervous energy that he feels.

"Regardless…of just how powerful you are, I won't let myself be bullied by you."

Now her laugh sounds more like the age she wears on her face.

"Wow! Me? A bully? That's just rich! Oh alright. I'll humor you this time."

She goes to sit on empty air and finds a desk waiting for her derriere.

"That's Kumagawa Misogi. The absolute worst, best complete incomplete Minus that I have ever met. The only one that I've met with a skill that can overcome all of mine."

"He's that strong? I though Minus's were weak?"

"Like yourself?"

He frowns and furrows his brows ever so slightly but otherwise says nothing.

"...You're no fun. Yes, yes. He's that strong. Never mind that he had taken a Skill that I had given him and warped it to be his own when I had to trade for his original Minus. He had used both of those to seal my powers before and he has both of them now along with another skill of mine and one of his own. Really. He's become quite the handful."

"And so what now then? Do you intend to kill me so I can harm him?"

He had figured with the way she spoke about him, with all it's pride and affection, that she would try that. After all, they're friends in an unfamiliar world. They would need to team up or else-

"Oh no. Just the opposite actually!"

"The opposite..."

"I want to help you rid this world of him."

That's right. They've been enemies since the moment she had told him about how she felt about living and he came to care. Now that he had graduated though was he actually something of a threat. But only about as much as a cockroach is a threat on someone's relaxation time.

Now, she wasn't going to leave any room for hope in his life here. This world was where she was going to finally die. Not by choice mind, it was just a matter of convenience. She had scoped this place out awhile ago after all.

It should be clarified now but it's completely idiotic for her to have given away Hundred Gauntlets like that to a Main Character, of course. Especially to someone else that could twist it into something else like Kamijou Touma. She's been trying to stay at least somewhat hidden before today but it doesn't matter anymore.

If she has to, she'll kill him.

If she has to, she'll kill everyone on this planet.

If she has to, she'll destroy this universe.

If she has to, she'll destroy every possible world that had existed, exists, or ever will exist.

"That includes the ones with people that happen to read shitty fanfiction. Which goes double for their less than mediocre authors."

"What was that?"

"Don't worry Edd! Just knocking on the 4th wall a bit for our dear readers."

She'll do all that and more to release herself from the boredom of living.

He'll do all that and more to save her life.

They're both far too broken to be redeemed, in more ways than one, but they hardly notice it at this point.

That their motivations aren't quite what they make them out to be.

* * *

 **This story is going to follow the main NT storyline fairly closely. There will of course be changes, such as hopefully making everyone's favorite pretty fridge boy not job so fucking hard goddamnit Kakine, but I want this to be more Kumagawa and Kamijou do Academy City than Kumagawa's Bizarre Adventure if you catch my drift. Anyway, this is it for awhile since I had everything until this point mostly done before I posted them here. I'll get started on the next part tomorrow so if you have questions or whatever go ahead and ask via PM or whatever else this site has. I'm getting better used to the site but I'm still pretty dumb about it sometimes. See you in the next update!  
**


	6. Chapter 6

A Fool's Tour Of The City  
Divergence_In_Fate

* * *

Academy City. The hub for humanity's scientific progress in the world. A city comparable to that of any of the grand centers of ancient legend like Babylon or the Library of Alexandria. Skycrapers were as plentiful as trees in a forest, cars and buses rode by without drivers, robots whirred every which way and that, and the students of the various schools trained the supernatural powers granted to them by the city's curriculum.

Within the Windowless Building, the mastermind of this place, Aleister Crowley, reflects on what Najimi Anjimu had said the other week. She had offered to help with removing Kumagawa Misogi, which was something he definitely needed to do if he was anything like her. The question was whether or not to side with her or him in getting the other out of his way.

Ajimu so far had been content to do whatever it is she does on a level of existence higher than even Aiwass. Since he's known her, all she had done is mock his efforts as some form of entertain herself. But now that Kumagawa is here, she's actively involving herself in the world. If he were to ignore her offer, well it'd be pointless to even imagine what she might do but the level of destruction would be at the least catastrophic. At the most, fatal. And that is all without considerations to how she's going to go about her suicide.

Then there's Kumagawa. Aleister doesn't know him as well as he does Ajimu, which is disturbingly little, but from what he saw, he's too much of a wild card to deal with. Well, that's hardly any different from her and her odd fixation on describing life as though it were some novelisation. However, the only reason to side with him is his motivation to have Ajimu give up her own. If he were to succeed, it might be like taking two birds with one stone but what about what they'll do afterwards? Would they really leave peaceably? Either way, despite the disadvantages he's the best bet of removing Ajimu.

To summarize, it'd be either help Ajimu take out Kumagawa and let her go back to her Pandora's Box until she decides to kick the lid out from the inside or help Kumagawa and risk him breaking the box with a hammer when his back's turned and lose everything anyway. Honestly, it was a hard decision.

But the time for him to decide was up. She had returned with a different uniform on this time.

"Tokiwodai's? Did you go there?"

"No, no need to worry Edd. I still respect your wishes as far as my involvement with the people of this city. Just thought it might look good on me! What do you think?"

She twirls and poses seductively. It may be a bit forced but her charm was as such that anyone would be immediately smitten by her. Though, Aleister Crowley wasn't just anyone.

"Do you still have business with me? If not, please go back to whatever form of Purgatory you've been waiting in."

She pouts with her cheeks puffed out.

"Geeeeze, Edd! Well, I suppose I can't complain if you've actually decided on something. You have right? Whether to side with Kumagawa or myself."

He tenses up, "...Why would I-"

"Stop. You may be quite the skilled manipulator but that silver tongue can't work on someone like me with a platinum tongue."

She smiles but no joy or happiness could be found in it. It was like staring into a black hole.

"Can't say it'd be a bad idea to go with him since you want me gone too but I would personally advise against it. He doesn't even have a clue on how to stop me. All the conviction and determination in the world can't stop me. I, on the other hand, have the perfect method for killing him."

Aleister raises an eyebrow, an effect that is lost on anyone receiving the look since he's upside down.

"I thought that All Fiction of his can make the event of him dying nonexistent? How is it that you propose to kill someone that can't die? Bury him in concrete?"

"Hmm, no. He could just make it so concrete never existed in that situation. If you want to kill him permanently, you'll need to take those powers from him. Though being a Minus means that even without powers, he's still extremely dangerous."

"Then what is it you suggest? As it is, you can barely be in this level of reality for more than a few minutes at a time without damaging it. I don't personally have a method for taking his powers from him. Imagine Breaker isn't something to be used for something like that."

"True. I wouldn't suggest that match up even if it could. They would surely butt heads at first but they're too similar to not become allies. He may be the main character of this shitty story but now that an even shittier pseudo-author has decided to make this a crossover, it would be far too uninteresting if he just had one of them kill the other without some kind of interaction between those characters."

Aleister has long since gotten used to her way of speaking to let it rile him so he ignores that last bit.

"Then who do you suggest can do it? I've already sent messages to the Level 5 espers to kill him but if you have another method, I'd like to hear it."

"Oh? How are you planning on actually getting them to do it?"

"Accelerator is particularly easy in terms of that. Granted, his 'leash' from before is useless, I can still threaten him with the lives of the clones or by disconnecting him from the Misaka network."

"The ghost in there will allow that?"

"Whether it does or not is irrelevant. Kakine is being preserved but actually utilizing his essence is something I won't let happen again. Besides, he seems to be getting close to regaining sentience again. Which is something I'll have to handle but that's not your business. Everyone else isn't really up for consideration either. Except Gunha I suppose but that's something I'd like to avoid. Nobody knows about his power, least of himself, and I have no idea of what would happen if he were to come into contact with Kumagawa. But that's all irrelevant. What other method is there?"

"So easily discounting your precious students like that, what a bad principal you are."

"Just get to the point."

"Shokuhou Misaki has the ability to kill Kumagawa permanently."

Aleister scoffs, "So? How exactly is she supposed to do that? Her power isn't really on par with someone like him."

"I suppose I could reveal the answer but where's the fun in that? Just trust me on this. Send Misaki to kill Kumagawa and neither of us will be disappointed."

She disappears just as suddenly as she came. Aleister floats in his tube without speaking a word or lifting a finger. He simply closes his eyes and waits. The report from the upcoming battle between Kumagawa and Accelerator should give him some insight.

The van swerves hard around the corner, knocking down an Anti-Skill robot. An unnatural disaster follows with carnage in it's wake, wind kicks several cars away like they were made of paper and the earth shatters around it. Several missiles fire from the back of the van at the calamity and rebound from it at odd angles. One of which, hits just to the side of the van and blows it onto it's two side wheels for a moment before it's driver corrects it.

"End-of-the-Century-Emperor-senpai, please keep the van steady. I can't keep him away if you keep driving so awkwardly."

[Hey! Hey! End-of-the-Century-Emperor-senpai! Do you have any good tunes in here? Car chases deserve some kind of upbeat music!]

End-of-the-Century-Emperor-senpai, Hamazura Shiage, clutches the wheel in a death-grip.

"Will you stop with that?! I get it! I get it already! I was embarrassed enough that I actually called myself that, goddamnit! You don't have to keep calling me that! Also, it's kinda hard to keep steady when you have the pissed off personification of an entire world's nuclear arsenal trying to kill you! Side note, Kumagawa, THERE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS THAN STUPID ASS MUSIC!"

Just an hour before...

It's only been about five hours since Kumagawa Misogi and Kihara Enshuu have been in Academy City. The majority of that time was spent running from the authorities, since Kumagawa had used his panty steal special just when they were going to let them through, and the rest was spent looking for new clothes and a place to eat lunch. Muddied, blood-soaked clothes don't make for the most inconspicuous wear for two weirdos on the lam.

Enshuu, now dressed in a white lab coat, black shorts that ended at the base of the thighs, and black pantyhose, walks to their table with a Sprite in hand and sits next to Kumagawa, dressed in a black v-neck and a loosely worn coat with fur on the openings.

[That isn't right. You're supposed to be drinking Dr. Pepper.]

"They didn't have any. Why should I be drinking that anyway?"

They were currently getting lunch at a family restaurant. Kumagawa takes a giant bite out of his cheeseburger.

[It's the principal of the matter! If you're going to cosplay like that, you might as well follow those little character traits.]

"Wasn't aware that drinking a certain brand of soda is a character trait but you were the one who picked out these clothes for me to begin with. Why did you pick these anyway?"

[Because you're a scientist right? You should blend right in this city!]

"...And your own clothes?"

[Well it isn't that flashy is it? We could say that I'm your eccentric research assistant.]

"So, you just wanted to cosplay then."

Kumagawa dramatically spits out the soda he was drinking and starts coughing up a storm.

[Wh-wh-what makes you think that?! There's no way I wanted to dress you up as a tsundere scientist and rub my face against your leggings while you get flustered and scream baka hentai at the top of your lungs! That's just sick! You need to get your mind out of the gutter Enshuu-chan!]

The whole restaurant goes silent at his outburst. Enshuu clears her throat.

"Well. That is about what I'd expect from you Kumagawa-oniichan but please restrain yourself while we're in public. It goes against what we're trying to do if you keep calling so much attention to us."

Kumagawa plants his chin on the table as he pouts.

[You're no fun. Where is that emotional Enshuu-chan that I loved messing with? Where did she go?]

"That was mostly since I had supplanted most of my feelings and thoughts with the Kihara's that I emulated. If I were to try to talk to you as I was back then, it wouldn't be very surprising if I couldn't do anything with them. This is more or less how I am without them."

Kumagawa just pouts some more even as someone else sits across from the two of them.

"...Are you fucking with me? That chairman really has a poor sense of humor if he's going to have me kill some random idiots like this."

Enshuu's eyes go wide as she realizes who it was that casually said that he was going to kill them.

"Accelerator!"

[Hm? Oh, this is that Accelerator you were talking about before? How's it hanging Accel-kun!]

Accelerator looks down on Kumagawa's still table-bound face and raises an eyebrow.

"...You really must be an idiot if you're not shitting your pants by now like the Kihara runt over there."

[I'm happy to be an idiot. It's all I can be after all!]

"Tch. Whatever. I'm not really in the mood to play with you anyway. Just tell me why the chairman wants you dead."

"...You really aren't going to do anything to us?"

"I wouldn't really get anything out of slaughtering some midget and an idiot. Even if the midget is a Kihara."

[Ehhhhh? That's no fun Accel-kun! I really wanted to fight the strongest guy in this city but if you aren't feeling up to it then there's no point.]

"Sorry to deny your retarded delusions. But I'm not really interested in going with the wishes of the assholes that run the darkness of this city."

[Darkness? Oh that chuuni crap that Enshuu-chan talked about! But, hmmm. HMMMMM. How do I get you to fight me seriously? OH. I got it! I got it! Wait here Accel-kun! I've got just the thing! Enshuu-chan, entertain our new friend while I'm gone. I'll be back before you know it!]

And with that he leaps over the table and runs outside, leaving Enshuu and Accelerator with bewildered looks on their faces. Enshuu sighs after a moment.

"What is it runt?"

"Well, he said to entertain you but I'm not really sure how to do that."

"Don't look at me for answers. I've already got my hands full being dragged around by one pair of a midget and an idiot, I don't need two. Now, just tell me what is with you guys so I can fix whatever the hell is going on and tell that chairman to go fuck himself. I don't want to spend anymore time on you freaks than I need to."

Enshuu hadn't heard any of this and was lost in thought. Accelerator clicks his tongue and orders a coffee. By the time he had gone about 3/4s of the way through his cup, Enshuu claps her hands suddenly.

"What the hell is that about, Kihara runt?"

"I've got it! In this kind of a situation, a Minus would entertain an enemy like this!"

She throws the silverware in front of her at Accelerator while jumping to the side as they rebound from his reflection. His hand lowers from the electrode choker.

"...I thought I told you I didn't want to fight you idiots."

"Yeah. But I need to entertain you so I needed to get an exact measurement on the algorithms that run that reflection of yours. Now that I have it, I can test out my Minus again!"

There wasn't any sort of explosion or visual effect to mark what happened but Accelerator felt that something was off when she had said that. He pays it no mind however and stands up from his seat without any real hurry in his movements. Enshuu grabs a plate and throws it at Accelerator. He, again, pays this no mind and reflects the plate back at her. Just as the plate was a scant few inches from her, _it rebounds by some unseen force and smacks Accelerator in the face._

"Gah!"

"Hn. Hn. Now that I can use my Minus to take 50% of your essence, I can easily hit you with your own power and calculations!"

"...Don't fuck with me runt."

In the blink of an eye, he appears at her side and kicks at her torso. She goes flying into a wall but so does he, in the opposite direction. The people all scream and run out of the place as they fight in this small space. Every time one of them attempts to hit the other, the attack rebounds. Fist to fist, kick to kick, every hit is equally matched by the other and rebounded.

"...Fine. How about this then you shitty fake?!"

He juts his hand out and grabs her face without any interference from her reflection field. She gets thrown out the window with a massive sonic boom destroying what was left of the restaurant. Her body goes through a building and skids across the street several times before she stops.

Accelerator walks out and jumps over the building, landing lightly in front of Enshuu.

"Nobody except your dead shitty uncle knows my calculations better than me. I don't know how you managed to get that much from throwing forks at me, or how you can steal my power, but it doesn't really matter if I can readjust my field to work out those little weaknesses you exploited. So thanks for that runt, you've given me some insight on how to defend myself against someone that tries to use my power against me."

She remains unmoving.

"Oi. I didn't you that hard did I?"

"Why?"

She sits up from where she had landed.

"What did they do to get you to try to kill Kumagawa-oniichan?"

"...It doesn't matter."

"Yes. It does. They have her don't they?"

Accelerator clenches his fists.

"How do you know that?"

"Because you know it."

"Don't bullshit me! If you're involved with this-"

"It's because of how this power works. I can take half of whatever makes my opponent what they are. Powers, skills, knowledge, personality, emotions, memories, all of their being becomes something that I can borrow from."

He relaxes slightly. Not enough for his guard to be lowered but he wasn't as wary.

"So you know because you stole my knowledge of it."

"No. You still have the memory. I simply make it so your essence becomes a shared pool for the both of us to take from. It's like if you were to put a wall into the middle of a pool, it doesn't become two pools just because it's separated. It's still the same water. Hn. That may be a poor example but suffice it to say, I don't 'steal' anything. It's only something that's forcibly shared between the two of us."

Accelerator only sighs and places a hand to his face. He hadn't come to them to fight. This was the honest truth. He didn't want anything more to do with this city's darkness since he had negotiated for it to be abolished. But of course, the evil in human's hearts isn't so easily eradicated simply because someone says please. He came to save these two from whatever they had gotten mixed up in so he could quash whatever remains there were of the darkness but from what he could tell, they're just a pair of weirdos that got on the higher ups bad side for whatever reason. No darkness or light to be found here. Just some jesters that irritated the wrong people with their foolishness.

He turns off his choker and leans on his cane.

"...Whatever. Since it's clear that it's pointless to try to save or fight you idiots, I'll just figure out where they've got that brat and bring her home. Hopefully I can cause enough damage to make them think twice about doing this again."

He walks away after muttering this to himself. The sound of light sobbing from behind him stops him in his tracks.

"...What is it, runt?"

"How do you even cope with this?"

"Hahn?"

He turns and has the sneer wiped from his face by the genuine tears that ran down Enshuu's face.

"I knew about it...but I never thought that it was this bad."

"...What are you talking about?"

"I've killed quite a few people so I thought that it was equivalent but this is so much worse."

A small smile cracks across her face much to Accelerator's annoyance.

"Shut up."

"All the people I killed had so many different faces and expressions but all of those clones had the exact same look on them. No matter how they were killed. Or how much they suffered."

"I said shut it runt."

"It wasn't anger or sorrow or even pain that they had. It's quite strange isn't it? It was pity. Pity for their killer."

"SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT THINGS YOU CAN'T UNDER-"

"Do you really believe that pity means forgiveness you genociding piece of shit?"

Accelerator slaps the switch on his choker with a bestial roar and flings himself at her.

Last Order groggily wakens within the dimly lit warehouse. She tries to scream as she remembers what happened but her mouth has been taped shut. She looks around and realizes that she has been taped to a chair.

She had been walking around the city after she had sneaked out of her apartment as she usually does when some men jumped out of a van and put a smelly rag to her face. Her consciousness blinked in and out as she was being transported but they had put a bag over her face so she had no idea of who took her and where exactly she is now.

"Man, these jobs suck," said one of the men.

"Stop complaining. This'll be the easiest 8 million yen you'll ever make," says another from a table a bit away from where Last Order was.

"Yeah but isn't that number 1 connected to her? We'll all die if he finds us you know."

"Maybe. But that's why we have our lookout tailing him so if he does wipe those two out or if he does anything other than that, he'll give us a call and we can ditch the brat here while we hightail it."

"You don't think he'll figure out he's being tailed? I feel like we're underestimating this kid."

"Oh shut the fuck up already," a new voice yells from just behind her, "The girl's awake so don't say anything unnecessary."

The one with the complaints asks, "I thought that's what those sheets outside were for? Don't they jam the signals she puts out to that network or whatever?"

"Heh, don't talk so carelessly about things that'll get you killed for even knowing that much about it. But yeah, she can't call for anyone right now."

"Oh? Is that so? Then we can do whatever we want with her right?", says the complainer menacingly as he holds his hands above his head and stalks over to Last Order's shivering body.

"...Are you so bored that you'll act like you're some damned lolicon you sick bastard?", questions the man at the table.

"H-hey! I'm just trying to scare the brat a bit! Why do you have to ruin my fun?"

The other two laugh at the man's incompetence. From what Last Order could gather, they must have some condition put on them where they can't hurt her. Whether that's from whoever put the order out to kidnap her to begin with or the threat of Accelerator if he were to find out about it, it matters little. But that doesn't ease her mind any. The thought that he had been brought into another situation where he might do things that'll hurt him made her worry. She wanted to put out a message to the Misaka Network but, true to what they had said, the sheets made this a futile gesture.

"Well. It's only a matter of time before he kills those two. Nobody could survive against that monster."

"So what are you going to do with all that money anyway boss? Finally go on that trip to Hawaii with your wife?"

[Wife? Screw being tied down like that! I'm just going over there to harass some cute hula girls!], says a new voice, replacing the one behind her.

The other two get up and pull out their guns.

"Who the hell are you?! What have you done with our boss?!"

[Oh? The old guy? He reminded me of a sleepy bull so I bulldozed him!]

The two look at each other awkwardly but keep their guns pointed at the man behind Last Order.

[Damn it. I really thought I nailed that pun but oh well. Screw it.]

Before he had finished his sentence, the two men had been impaled by several screws and fell to the ground. The sounds of slow plodding feet irk Last Order's nervousness with each step as they approach.

[Is that you Lo-chan? I'd hate it if I somehow got the wrong shady kidnapper hideout again. Man that was embarrassing. Don't tell Accel-kun about it please! I might die from having to relive the memory of acting all courageous for the wrong tied up little girl!]

Her nerves stop shaking her at the familiar name. But of course, she can't say anything right now.

[Oh double damn! You can't talk right now can you? Here, I'll rip that off like a band-aid!]

She tries to tell him not to tear it so crudely and just do it nice and gradual. But of course, that's exactly why she can't save herself from that sharp pain of adhesive pulling rapidly from her skin.

"AAAAAAAAAARGH! WHY WOULD YOU DO IT SO HARSHLY, EXCLAIMS MISAKA AS MISAKA WRITHES IN PAIN!"

[Misaka? I thought your name was Last Order?]

"Why do you ignore my pain asks Misaka as Misaka is frustrated at her savior for his crassness despite being grateful. Anyway, you know Accelerator?"

[Something like that. Hey! Do you want to play a fun prank on him?]

Kumagawa claps his hands onto her little shoulders and tightens his grip.

"O-ow! You're holding me too tightly says Misaka as Miska-"

[Don't worry Lo-chan. It won't hurt for too much longer.]

His smile grows in size and maliciousness as he grips even tighter onto her.

The fight between them had become a war in how extensive the damage had become. What was a city square where many had commuted to school or work, shopped at the various stores, or just simply hung out was now little more than a crater in the ground.

With how much they changed their own calculations of their respective reflection fields, neither of them could get much of a hit in. Accelerator's rage had been quelled by now and he just stews in the shallow anger at realizing that he had been played into fighting this Kihara girl. He had been trying to escape but with the way things are now, Enshuu will just follow after him and given just how destructive he knows his power to be, it'll be hard to avoid casualties.

"Look, I've been entertained plenty enough already you goddamn runt. I've got things to do so how about you fucking stop already?"

"But Kumagawa-oniichan said-"

"I don't give a fuck about your stupid goddamn oniichan! I need to go save my brat so just cut it out!"

"No. Not until he comes back."

He clicks his tongue in frustration but otherwise finds himself unable to do anything. She's too evenly matched with him to be able to just overwhelm and run off. On the other hand, she seems content with not fighting as long as he stays put. He just needs to find a way to stop her. Easier said than done considering his abilities are hers at this point.

That's the unfortunate part of having a Personal Reality. It makes it so one's own personality and their power to warp reality in a specific manner are synonymous. In Accelerator's case for example, he had wanted to become the strongest so that no one would think to attack him. But given that his power is more prominently manifested in that reflection field of his, it makes his motivation contradictory. A shield makes for a poor weapon all things considered. Thus, he didn't want absolute attack power but an absolute defense so that no one can hurt themselves because of his power.

The point is that to find weakness in an esper power is like finding a weakness in their personality. It's not on a one to one basis in terms of this. Amata's reverse punch isn't some attack based on Accelerator's fondness for the small and frail. However, for one with a Personal Reality to try to find weaknesses in it is difficult. Nobody wants to make themselves aware of their own shortcomings. Accelerator is a bit different in regards to this given the recent changes in his life.

Throughout their fight, he had been making deliberate efforts to not come in contact with her reflection field since he knows perfectly well how it works. But what if he crashed into her reflection field with his own? If he makes it so it runs calculations that change every so few milliseconds with a slight margin of randomization and runs straight into her, it should be too much for her to handle. It's almost too much for him to handle with Enshuu borrowing his calculation abilities. But if it can buy him enough time to get to Last Order, it's worth the effort.

[Enshuu-chaaaaaan! Been having fun!]

He whips his head in the direction of the fool's voice and widens his eyes.

"Last...Order..."

Her body was bloodied and torn. Her skin was flayed open in spots, her tiny arms and legs were bent at odd angles, and the heads of two Phillips screws replaced her eyes. Kumagawa had dragged that pitiable body from god knows where for god knows how long by the hair.

[Hey, Accel-kun! Look at who I brought! It's your little Last Order! Lo-chan, what're you so quiet for?]

Accelerator was stunned silent. On seeing that horribly mangled form, he stopped thinking.

['Oh I'm just embarrassed to have Accelerator-niisan see me like this!' That's just silly Lo-chan! He loves you no matter what. Surely, he won't be so rude as to start hating you because of appearances! 'Geeze Kumagawa-kun! My name is Last Order not Shirley!' Hahahahahaha! You got me there!]

Accelerator's rage grows like the violence within a volcano. His every muscle twitches and spasms with his emotions growing out of control. Never before had he felt such anger as raw and twisting as this.

But before he could do anything, Kumagawa tosses Last Order's body to him.

[Here she is! Now you don't have to worry about her anymore since she's by your side again! No need to thank me, her crying, miserable face was reward enough. Come on Enshuu-chan!]

He runs off with a flustered Enshuu following behind. Accelerator falls to his knees at the spot where Last Order's body lay. He strokes her face absentmindedly.

"Hey brat...wake up already. This isn't fucking funny anymore. Hey."

He slaps her face. He tickles her ribs. He uselessly pulls at her nonexistent eyelids.

He stops moving. For awhile he just stares at her. He stares. He stares. He stares some more. There is no longer any sentience within the shell that was once known as Accelerator.

He stands up shakily and a black glow begins to burn from his back.

All he is now, is an avatar for madness incarnate.

The black wings burst from him with an explosive surge that nearly matches his horrible roar.

Enshuu and Kumagawa rest in an alleyway some distance away from the battlefield. They gasp for breath as they lean against a dumpster.

"What the hell was that?", Enshuu wheezes.

[I don't know. It was just a prank so I don't see why Accel-kun should get so riled up abou-]

A vicious slap stops him from saying anymore. He looks at her with genuine surprise as he places a hand to his cheek.

[...Enshuu-chan?]

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!"

His shock remains for but a split second before it seamlessly melts into his regular smile.

[That's the flustered, tsunyan Enshuu-chan that-]

Another slap pelts him.

"WHY?!"

[…]

"DON'T IGNORE ME! WHY WOULD YOU GO SO FAR GODDAMNIT?!"

He saves his face from yet another slap by holding her wrist.

"...It had to be this way. It was the only way to save them both from this situation I mixed them up in."

She yanks her hand from him with a resentful expression.

"Why? I keep asking that so tell me why already."

"First off, that was just an illusion. She's alive and well. Ought to be right back at that apartment she lives at if she'll stay put there at any rate."

"What?"

"It had to be done to assure her safety and make sure that Accelerator tries to kill me in accordance with what that Aleister guy wants so he'll be satisfied when he fails to do so. I had told her that I could create a copy of her body so I could draw silly things on it with a marker so it would piss Accelerator off but, for obvious reasons, that wouldn't be enough. I had to make the poison potent enough to force his will to stop holding himself back. Only with him attacking me with all his power and failing to even kill me, will the Crimson King locked up in his tower be satisfied with his plans and move onto something else."

Her expression softens but still remains doubtful.

"...So why not just tell Accelerator about your plan and not mindbreak him?"

Kumagawa shrugs.

"It wouldn't have been believable. You said Aleister uses microscopic drones or whatever to scope things out right? I guess he knows now anyway but the results should be the same regardless."

"I also said that I have a method for blowing up a cloud of those so that he now longer has his eye on us."

"..."

"Did you really forget?"

"...Oh."

They're conversation lulls at his realization. After a time, he sticks out his tongue slyly and knocks on his head lightly.

[Guess I went too far huh?]

"NO SHIT!"

She savagely beats Kumagawa's head with a pipe laying nearby until the blood paints the wall, floor, and her own clothes. She is left gasping for air again from the exertion as Kumagawa makes the event null and void.

[Geeze, Enshuu-chan! You may be a veteran tsunyan but your character doesn't really mesh so well with being a tsukkomi. You should just stick to being a yangire!]

"I'd rather not play into this manzai crap, I agree, but I'm not some character in an anime you know."

[Yeah. Odds are this series only has like two seasons so there's no way you ever show up in either of those. Though, I'm not really one to talk. I was lucky enough they at least gave me an episode before they stopped with mine. Ah the struggles of having a series end a year after it's animated adaptation! Though it doesn't really seem like yours has ended just yet so maybe it's an issue of having a sadistic editor that gets off on vaguely teasing a third season but gives something completely unrelated instead.]

"...Setting your insanity aside for a moment-"

[Don't worry. I was just being used as a mouthpiece for some frustrated virgin that wants to see more of his shockingly cute waifu animated but since he knows it'll never happen, he vents by writing a crossover story since he likes my series and this one so much.]

"-What do we do now?"

[That's the 114,625,000 yen question now isn't it? We can't let him fight me in an area with people around since he might just slaughter everyone without a care in the world. I might be able to end it in a single move but with my luck, I'll just miss. It's better if we can get him somewhere else. But how do we kite this aggroed mid-boss without hurting any NPC's?]

"It may also be a good idea to let him see the real Last Order. He may realize what you did and, while likely still pissed, he should be calmed down enough to know what he's doing."

[Well, I can have you just call her in a moment as soon as we figure out the logistics of this movement we're going to be doing but the main thing is how're we going to get to where we're going fast enough to outpace whatever he throws at us and not so fast as to lose him. I can move plenty fast but I don't feel like waiting around for him to find me that often. That's just annoying. We need some way to distort or otherwise hinder his abilities-]

"As long as I have my Minus and some of my gear, that's not an issue."

[-and we need someone skilled at driving enough that they can outmaneuver that monster. But where can we find someone like that?]

A voice calls from the other end of the alley.

"Well, I don't really want to involve myself in something as dangerous like Accelerator's wrath but if it's like you described then I have no choice but to poke my nose into this if I don't want Takisubo and the others to get sucked in."

[Huh? And who're you Mr. Eleventh-hour?]

"Just call me End-of-the-Century-Emperor-senpai!"

About 20 minutes later…

"God fucking damnit! Why did I do this?! Why am I so stupid?!"

[Come on End-of-the-Cent-]

"Don't. Don't you fucking dare."

[Dostedt.]

"Wha- fuck!"

His momentary distraction nearly had him run into a chunk of the street that used to be behind them but was fired by Accelerator's urge to eviscerate Kumagawa.

"Are you always this calm in these kind of situations?!"

[Eh. Kinda, I guess. But it's mostly because we have you at the wheel that I can feel at ease about all this! So don't worry about the impending avant-garde art that will be your death! We will always remember your name!]

"Then what is it?"

[Huh?]

"If you really meant what you said, then what is my name?!"

[...End-of-]

He screams in alien tongues with cursing that could make grown men blush.

"Does he always do this?"

Enshuu, reloading her homemade missile launcher, turns her head back to Hamazura.

"Hn. Pretty much. He really isn't the type to sweat the small stuff. Shouldn't you be less worried about others and be more focused on what's going to be in your will?"

"WHY DID I HAVE TO EVEN WORRY ABOUT YOU IDIOTS?!"

[Are we there yet, Zura-chan?]

"Zura-chan? Whatever, it's close enough. Yet District 23 is just ahead. We'll be in an area where they typically fly out drones and stuff so you'll be free to do whatever then."

[Cool. Cool. Enshuu-chan, what about Lo-chan?]

"She'll be there in a minute. The Third Season clone, WORST, has hijacked a bus so she can get her there."

[WORST, huh. I wonder if that's the author's odd way at protesting the lack of another anime season then? Ah but there I go being a mouthpiece again when I should be doing more important things. Get yourself together you shitty author and move onto the good stuff! Get my harem in order already you 76.67% wizard!]

Another chunk of urban earth strikes to the side of the van as they plow right through a chain-linked fence and onto the extensive runways that make up the majority of District 23. As soon as they've gotten a third of the way in, Kumagawa jumps from his passenger seat and rolls out the back of the van, tumbling and crashing all over the place.

He stands up, his torn apart skin and jutting bones retconned from reality, and faces the localized form of the four horsemen. He no longer resembled a human being with all his snarling and bloodshot eyes. Accelerator immediately latches onto Kumagawa with his legs locked around his torso and hands of destruction lashing at his face. Every blow takes flesh and bone with it. Every time it comes back. This just exacerbates his anger.

He jumps off Kumagawa with a dropkick that sends them both flying opposite ways. He reaches a hand out towards him as he charges again and Kumagawa's entire body explodes into red mist as he passes.

He comes back, unharmed.

Accelerator reverses Kumagawa's blood flow and bioelectricity on the next pass, detonating his body in another way.

He comes back, unharmed.

Accelerator tears an arm off and blasts half of his torso when he gets hit by it like a bat.

He comes back, unharmed.

Shards of asphalt the size of a fire hydrant get kicked up and bore into Kumagawa.

He comes back, unharmed.

Several balls of plasma appear and smite Kumagawa with impunity.

He comes back, unharmed.

Several dozen tornadoes rush at him and rend him to shreds.

He comes back, unharmed.

Black wings attack him like a horde of snakes and devour him.

He comes back, unharmed. He dies. He comes back, unharmed. He dies. He comes back, unharmed. He dies. He comes back, unharmed. He dies. He comes back, unharmed. He dies. He comes back, unharmed. He dies. He comes back, unharmed. He dies. He comes back, unharmed. He dies. He comes back, unharmed. He dies. He comes back, unharmed. He dies. He comes back, unharmed. He dies. He comes back, unharmed. He dies. He comes back, unharmed.

[Enshuu-chan.]

Between the deaths, he calls for her.

"Hn."

[I'm your opponent now, understand?]

"I understand."

Accelerator goes to kill him once more but is struck in the chest by a hazy screw with a long slot and a smaller one on the head going in such a way as to make it look like a cross. This wasn't like being hit with that magic crap. That, while totally foreign, was still something that fit into his calculations given the few similarities. But this wasn't just foreign or even alien. This wasn't a system that should exist. His knees slam onto the ground.

[Wasn't sure how well that'd work. It's the same type of combo I hit Anshin'in with except, I needed Enshuu to halve it's potency. Otherwise you'd be as weak as me for about 30 years. Well, I wouldn't need to pile on All Fiction either if it weren't for that reflection field. Can't reflect nothing, can you? Silly question. Obviously, you can't.]

"..."

By now Hamazura had gotten out of the van and walked up beside Enshuu as he watches on.

"Wow. You guys weren't kidding when you said that he could beat him in one hit. I thought that was just bullshit."

"Kumagawa-oniichan may be an idiot but he still does decently against elites like that guy."

[...I don't think he's necessarily an abnormal. He hasn't lived a blessed enough life for that. He does have quite the smile while he's in the middle of hell but I don't know about calling him a Minus. Enough needless exposition, this isn't Jump. Bring out Last Order!]

On hearing her name, Accelerator makes a weak effort to pull the screw out. If only to kill him one more time. But then she walks out where he can see. Unharmed.

"...Are you alright?, asks Misaka as Misaka cautiously aproaches."

He winces. It's what he'd always secretly feared. That she'd see him lose control and be afraid of him.

"I'm so sorry for pranking!, you exclaims Misaka as Misaka tries to admit her guilt so as to avoid getting her allowance taken from her!"

Allowance? Prank? Now he was really confused.

[Yeah. I was the one that asked her to do it. See,] he explains with a flourished hand producing another Last Order, [I needed her so I could make a copy of her to draw those silly signs and stuff on her face that you were so mad over!]

This is followed by an overt show of blinking that could be translated from Morse as Just follow along! Please just follow along!

"...It was all just a...prank?"

[Just a prank bro! You've been pranked!]

"Pranked bro!, yells Misaka as Misaka tries her very best to divert from her crimes!"

The screw dissipates as he groggily stands and walks over to Kumagawa, tripping every now and again.

[Oh? Oho? Ohohoho? Is Accel-kun about to give me a forgiveness hug?! Well come and share the love my new frie-]

Accelerator's punch sends Kumagawa crashing right into the van. He then turns to Last Order who immediately begins to cry profusely at what's to come. A raised hand makes her flinch and hold her eye's shut. A sharp flick to the forehead reopens her eyes as she cries in pain.

"Ow! Ow?, screams Misaka as Misaka states both her exclamation of pain as well as her bewilderment at the difference in punishment."

"Just go back home, brat. I need to talk to this guy privately."

"...You aren't still mad are you?, asks Misaka as Misaka expresses her concern."

"I'm not."

"He was just wanting to look out for us!, offers Misaka as Misaka tries to defend her friend's actions!"

His eye's twitch for a moment but WORST darts around Hamazura and scoops up Last Order in an arm, despite her protests.

"Don't worry tou-san! Misaka will take care of Last Order so you can mess this guy's face up nice and good. So keep your lust for Last Order in check for now and beat that asshole to a pulp!"

She drags Last Order into the bus she drove and rides off at high speed.

[...I like that girl. She can come over to my house and fuck my sister. Well, if I had one at any rate. Oh. On a side note, Enshuu-chan do you love me? Like a brother?]

"...I love you the way I loved being impaled by your oversized screw."

[...That's kinda more than a brother-sister relationship. Are you a brocon? That would explain a lot.]

"Oi," Accelerator pipes in, tired enough from today's events.

[What? She walked right into that one! Didn't she Zura-chan?]

"Eh? Me?", Hamazura jumps at being notice for the first time in a little while, "Um, well yeah. She kinda did set herself up for that."

[See! Zura-chan, you are now my best friend!]

At Accelerator's glowering stare, Hamazura shrinks back.

"Well, I don't quite know if I want that-"

At Kumagawa's teary face, Hamazura shrinks back.

"Argh! Alright, alright! I'll be your best friend even if Accelerator wants to kill me! Every other time we've met he's tried to kill me anyway so what the fuck does it matter!"

[That's the spirit old chum! But, we really should put that aside or Accel-kun will explode again. So what is it that you wanted to stay behind for anyway?]

"...Why did you have to go that far to get me to act my part?"

[Would you really have used that much force otherwise? Besides that wouldn't have saved Lo-chan either. Her 'corpse' being thrown at you might have thrown off the guys that put the hit out on me for long enough that they wouldn't look for if it was real or not. And even if they did know the difference, I had ensured that the strongest esper would be fully willing to slaughter the weakest Minus. I did go too far I'll admit but in the end it was worth it to get them off both of your backs.]

"If you ever do that again-"

[You'll kill me? Kinda makes such hate pointless when I'm quasi-immortal and all.]

"If you actually hurt her, I'll make it my personal mission to destroy everything you hold dear."

Kumagawa's smile dies at this. Then it returns, only sadder than what it ever was.

"If you can manage that, you'll have done more than I ever could."

He turns and walks away from Hamazura and Accelerator. Enshuu follows shortly after into that sunset.

"...Sooo, are they really planning to walk the entire 15 miles back to the road or what?"

Aleister had seen the results. It is about what he expected but he still held some hope. But then again if Accelerator were to defeat Kumagawa, then he'd have to grasp that system and that is just plain not an option. From what he's seen it's far too unpredictable and uncontrollable a system to just try to understand. There's no way in hell, he'd let that madness loose in his city.

He sighs, bubbles escaping from his mouth and floating up his tube. Well so much for the main plan. There isn't really any other method for removing such a being especially if Accelerator had put as much as he had into trying to kill him. He had considered that maybe his resurrection had a limit on it but that went out the window.

"That's to be expected. I don't know why you thought you could hammer a square through an abstract shaped hole. Well, I guess I did tell you do what thou wilt but there are limits to what is possible and what isn't."

Aleister frowns.

"Aiwass. You know how much of a burden is placed on the whole of the system when you manifest yourself so please leave if you're just around to mock me."

"Oh. Whoops, yeah I guess that's right. But you view my very existence as a mockery of your own so isn't this fine? It doesn't matter to me either way but I just thought this might be interesting. A being outside of this world's systems ought to advise you on beings outside of this world's systems. It's what I used to do for you after all."

The golden haired unexplained angel, Aiwass, floats upside down and looks Aleister in the eyes with a derisive gaze.

"You aren't needed for that anymore. So return to your level of existence and leave me to my own."

"Such a shame. And after I went to such lengths to make sure I wouldn't destroy reality to speak with you."

Aleister's frown deepens in confusion for a second before shifting rapidly into anger in the understand that this was a different extraterrestrial being.

"Get out of here _Ajimu_! Do you know what kind of damage you might have done?!"

Aiwass, puppeted by Najimi Ajimu, giggles.

"Aw! I was hoping to fool you a bit longer but nothing gets by a mastermind type of a character like you huh? At any rate, I made absolutely sure that I would do no harm to your world, which includes this little system of yours. So don't worry!"

"I can't help but worry whenever you're involved."

His voice was so filled with venom that it was a surprise that it didn't stain the fluids he floats in with its color as he spits those words out.

"Oh Edd! You really do care! Well your hate for me and the one I'm possessing hardly matters to me. It was quite willing to let me you know. We get along rather famously! It helps that we're bored to tears of living. But our friendship isn't what I'm here for. Are you going to go with my plan or not, little Edd boy? If not, I'll have to assume direct control of your shitty story and there's no telling how much editorial work I'll have to do to kick that loser anti-hero out of here."

Aleister had tried to think of any other method. Any at all. He even lightly thought of using Aiwass but now that he knows it's so carefree as to let something like Ajimu control it, that's a plan gone by the wayside. Even now, he struggles to think of something.

He'd almost rather scratch his plans than to get sucked into this devil's pace. Almost being a key word.

"...You promise this will take care of him? That the best way really is using Mental Out?"

A Mephistophelian smile erodes the face of the golden being.

"Absolutely Edd boy. Absolutely."

"Then let's go with that. I'll send Shokuhou Misaki to kill an immortal."

* * *

 **Whew. Did most of that in just a day. Once I get started, I sometimes forget to stop. At any rate, here's one of the few Kumagawa-centric stories that'll be told during the course of this! It's really only going to follow the main storyline of the New Testament novels but there are still some parts that need to be worked in like this one. The motley duo's skills will be put to the test for this story arc. If you're wondering why Accel wouldn't be good to fight Kumagawa, then I'll just say that nearly anyone with the kind of brute power that good old Yuriko has is pointless against him. Kumagawa can only really be beaten by people with indirect powers like Misaki, since they have to use particularly roundabout methods to fight anyway. It's going to be pretty fun to write actually. Lots of action, smug ojousamas, and psychological implications ahead. Don't know when the next update will be but if it's like this one, then hopefully soon. Thanks for reading!  
**


	7. Chapter 7

Academy City's Homeless Problem  
Immortality_Tests_Start_Now

* * *

About 5 minutes ago, Hamazura Shiage had answered the door to the apartment where he and the old members of ITEM had lived. It hadn't taken him but a second to slam the door on seeing who it had been that knocked. Since then, he had been standing at the door debating whether or not to open it again. He decided to do it.

[Oh hey Zura-chan! Wasn't sure what happened when you shut the door but-]

Door slams back shut again.

"...Maybe he'll go away if I ignore him."

Kumagawa's muffled voice replies from the other side, [Nah! I don't have anywhere else to be see, so I'll camp out here on your doormat if necessary!]

He reopens the door.

"...What do you want man? Please don't tell me you pissed Accelerator off again."

[No! What do you take me for Zura-chan? I mean, he did kinda kick me out of his place I guess after WORST-chan and I put a girl's sailor uniform on him while he slept. You should have seen the look on his face!]

"No thank you. I'd rather keep my face where it's at if it's all the same to you."

[Your loss. Also mine. Never thought I'd find a kindred soul like WORST-chan here! We even came up with codenames for each other. I made up BEST-chan for her she gave me Senoir Screwball. She's the big sister that I never had.]

"That's great to hear that you found love in the big city, really, but-"

[How dare you Zura-chan! Our relationship is entirely wholesome and platonic! Though there was some skinship we technically delved into. Or rather that I technically delved into. We wanted to piss Accel-kun off by making him think we were a couple and then I grabbed those boobs of hers when I thought he wasn't buying it and OH MAN. After feeling those puppies is when I started calling her BEST-chan. And-]

"Does this have a point?! I want to hear you out but if all you're going to talk about is what you did to get kicked out of Accelerator's place then I'm shutting this door."

He slams the door yet another time. Except, it hadn't shut. There was a foot in the way.

[Ok! Ok! I'll skip right to it! I need a place to stay and since you said we're best friends and all-]

"HELL NO! You'll just molest the girls here and turn this place into a goddamn warzone!"

Hamazura tries to lean on the door to apply enough pressure to make Kumagawa relent but that is no way to get a Minus to quit.

[Come on! I'm desperate here! Enshuu-chan and I just spent the night inside a cardboard box underneath an underpass! She'll kill me if I don't figure something out soon!]

"Good thing you're fucking immortal then!"

The door groans as they both fight through the door.

[Please! Don't leave me out in the cold Zura-chan! I won't even take a couch! I'll sleep in the bed of the girl with either the best boobs or legs! I'm not a picky man!]

"You're supposed to take the floor in that situation! Asshole!"

[Alright! Bad joke! I get it! You can get the best girl's bed and I'll just take second best!]

"That'll still get this apartment blown to smithereens you shit!"

The door was a military grade blast door so it should have been able to take the punishment but Kumagawa's desire to get in and Hamazura's desire to keep him out was strong enough to begin bending the door from it's frame.

[Fine! Being totally serious right now! I promise to leave your girlfriend, Takisubo-chan, alone! I won't even look in her general direction! Please!]

"Wait. How do you know she's my girlfriend?"

The door gets a reprieve from it's torture.

[Eh? Well when you said her name the other day, it was sort of a dead giveaway in how you said it. You don't normally refer to a girl that isn't as close as she is with the amount of emotion in your voice. But I swear to you, on my honor as a master pervert, that she won't even register in my mind whatsoever as long as I'm under this roof. And any damage done to this place, I will fix with All Fiction. And I'll have Enshuu-chan pay you with the money she makes as a Kihara or whatever!]

His promise to leave Takisubo alone had piqued his interest but the money is what sealed the deal. Kihara's get paid a ludicrous amount of money just for breathing. Plus, even if it isn't caused by Kumagawa's shenanigans, he promised to fix the place for free if anything ever breaks. Which happens more often than one might think. And yes, that's even considering that Hamazura is an ex-member/leader of Skill Out and the others ex-members of ITEM. The money they do make just doesn't cut it when it comes to the near weekly basis that the place gets attacked. Though it's mostly caused by Mugino's Meltdowner firing every which way.

"...Well, as long as you keep to all of that it should be fine."

[YES.]

"But I gotta reinforce this point as a man, no harassing Takisubo. I don't care if you're some immortal that can one shot a guy as powerful as Accelerator and I don't care if I'm just some normal guy. You hurt her, I'll hurt you on principal."

[I wouldn't quite discount 'normal' guys but you have my word, I won't do anything to her that you wouldn't want me doing. We're best friends after all!]

Hamazura lets out a half-laugh, half-sigh. Surprisingly, this was a guy he could get along with.

"Alright," he says opening the door, "Come on in. Oh. Where's Enshuu?"

[She had some stuff to do. I've got a cell now so I can get in contact whenever.]

"Now? Didn't have any before?"

[Hmm. I did but...well I left those behind.]

For a moment, there's a sadness in his eyes but that blinks out as easily as it came.

[Well, can't harass Zura-chan's girlfriend but that doesn't mean the others aren't fair game!]

"Oi-'

He tries stopping him but he's already inside and down the hall.

[Ladies, ladies, ladies! Naked-apron-senpai and Emperor Zura-chan are in the hizzle!]

In hindsight, letting him in wasn't Hamazura's best move.

* * *

In under an hour, Kumagawa had been kicked out again.

Not because of Hamazura, mind you. True to his word, he treated Takisubo like a discerning gentleman of dignity ought to. However 10 minutes later, he had acted as a discerning pervert of shamelessness by groping Mugino's ample breasts, massaging and rubbing his face on Saiai's thighs, and putting cat ears on Umidori while licking her navel. All this in the span of less than 2 minutes. Putting on the cat ears is what took the most time. At any rate, after the three had finally got fed up with trying to turn his smiling face into paste, Mugino grabbed the scruff of his neck and threw him through the window.

He had just finished recounting his tale to the two girls sitting across from him, Uiharu Kazari and Saten Ruiko, at the cafe he dropped by. He mostly just felt like unloading his problems onto someone else so he wouldn't have to deal with them and when he saw these two cute, kind girls through the window, he decided they were to be the ones for the job.

[Don't you feel sorry for me? I know I do. Can you please help me?]

Uiharu had just been listening on awkwardly, unsure of how to handle the situation.

Saten, on the other hand, was impressed.

"Holy crap! Did you seriously force one level 5 to crossdress and molest another in the span of a day? On top of messing around with those level 4s, that's pretty incredible! I mean, I've heard rumors of a guy going around the city fighting level 5s but I think you've topped even his legend!"

[Oh thank you, thank you! It was nothing, really!], he laughs shyly, scratching the back of his head.

"...I don't know if that's something to be proud of though," Uiharu sighs as she eats her parfait.

He had pretty much just squeezed his face to the window until they had made the mistake of acknowledging him and from there he's just made himself comfortable at their table.

[SO!], he suddenly exclaims, pounding his hands on the table, [Can I stay with one of you for the time being? I promise I won't take up much space. I'll just be sleeping in your panty drawer after all!]

Saten laughs raucously while Uiharu worries for her friend. She was afraid that she'd give in because she found him interesting and harmless but even someone as naive as Uiharu can tell he's dangerous.

"W-well, sorry to say but we both live in girl's dorms so-"

[Then that's perfect for me!]

She had deeply underestimated how little common sense the man she was dealing with had. Which is why she was relieved when she saw the friends she was meeting her with approach.

"Ah! Misaka-san! Shirai-san! Over here!"

Kumagawa turns to see who it was she was waving down and immediately dittos Uiharu.

[Heya Zappy Dan! It's good to see you too, Kuroko!]

"...Hm? Do you know this wretch, onee-sama?"

"Can't say I do?'

She didn't really understand the nickname he used for Misaka but not once during their conversation had Kuroko's given name been said. Even more danger alarms than she had flowers on her head began going off. But before she could try to subtly warn them, Saten switches sides and has the other two sit. When they caught each other's eye's, Saten only gave Uiharu a secretive thumbs up and serves to exacerbate her condition until she realizes what likely happened. Given that Uiharu has acted more or less withdrawn since he came by, and their friends came by, she probably figured it'd be best for her to sit next to him rather than any of the present company. A good friend but altogether incapable of reading minds, unfortunately.

Misaka, after Kuroko and herself ordered their things, asks, "So who're you anyway? Do we know each other?"

[Not really. Just heard about you and your friend from one of my own. Kind of a tourist here actually.]

"Ehhhh. Kinda an off season for tourists though. What are you here for?"

Uiharu begins to feel elated at the possibility that someone might be able to handle this guy. But then, she remembered that he had manhandled two level 5s today and was here to tell the tale. She became very, very afraid of whatever he was going to do next. Of course, Kumagawa has never been one to fufill people's expectations.

[Hm? Oh I just wanted to make a few friends is all! See, that other friend I told you about, is really shy but I know she wants friends so I wanted to try to introduce her to some girls her own age. She just kinda clings onto me and doesn't really hang out with anyone else because she's afraid of everyone else. I guess I'm just worried for her. She's too shy for me to leave her alone!]

In a research building somewhere in the city, Enshuu feels the shiver of a massive misunderstanding run down her spine.

Misaka smiles, "You really care about her, huh?"

[Yep!]

Everyone else smiles except for Uiharu. She knew he was lying but now she didn't know what to do now that he had convinced Misaka. Then she notices one other person that hadn't smiled at all.

"Hard to believe a wimpy stick of a man like you even has friends."

Everyone makes awkward expressions at Kuroko's open dislike for men, including Uiharu. She felt that was going too far even for a guy like that but the man in question hardly seemed affected.

[Ah! You're right! I'm too much a loser to have friends! You caught me!]

The awkward looks just get worse. Nobody knows how to handle this anymore. It was just too bizarre.

"It's rather rare when a subhuman like you knows their place."

[Yeah, well, nobody is as aware of how much of a failure I am other than myself.]

"Is that so?"

[Uh-huh. OH. Does anyone want to see a magic trick?]

"I doubt-"

Regardless, he takes a fork and sticks the pointed end upright on the table with one hand and waves the other around it. After a moment of circling his hand above it, he smashes his palm down onto it. His eyes go wide as he flails and screams.

[G-GAAAAAAAAH!]

"WHY WOULD YOU- SOMEBODY GET SOME NAPKINS AND CALL AN AMBULANCE!"

Everyone starts fidgeting around aimlessly as Kumagawa raises his two, uninjured, hands.

"Wh-"

[Where did my fork go? Seriously, it was supposed to come out of someone's mouth or something.]

The others watch on, peeved at his tricks yet still interested in more, as he looks around for the fork. Eventually he seems to spot something.

[Ah! It's behind your ear Uiharu-chan!]

"Huh?"

Her face goes bright red as he reaches behind her head and pulls out something. Something not at all shiny, metallic, or in any way shape or form an eating utensil.

[Oh? You keeping spares behind there huh? Always wondered where girls keep theirs at.]

Uiharu's crimson face turns an even deeper shade than what was ever thought possible. What he had pulled out was a string of 15 panties tied from end to end, each of them of separate design and size.

Uiharu nearly passes out from embarrassment, Saten nearly passes out from laughter, Misaka nearly has Kumagawa pass out from being shocked, and Kuroko just sips on her tea.

[O-okay! Clearly that wasn't as much of a hit with some as it was for others. Let's put these in a less conspicuous form shall we?]

Holding them with the panty ends of the chain wrapped on the middle fingers of each hand, he suddenly collapses the lot of them between his hands. As he slowly pulls them apart, there was a plastic bag containing all of them folded neatly in a few rows within them.

"Hey," Misaka mentions with half-lidded, no amusement within, eyes, "You left one out. Right there."

[Oh? But that one isn't one of the ones I prepared. Well, there's a simple way to check I suppose.]

He wads it up in a fist and slams it into the table. When he releases his grip, the panties had disappeared from his grasp.

[Wait a minute. I think I screwed that up a bit.]

His other hand, held a pair of white panties. As held them out, there was the picture of a certain cartoon frog on the rear side. Everyone at the table gasps as they recognize them. Saten's eyes sparkle with the wonder of being around for an urban legend in action. Uiharu peeks through her glued to the face hands. Misaka's face breaks Uiharu's record and nearly becomes an entirely different color altogether. Kuroko's eyes contain nothing but the wishes for the worst things that the world has to offer on him.

Kumagawa notices the last of his female audience and raises the panties above his head with the main opening spread between his hands. Slowly, he walks around to Kuroko and puts the opening just in front of her face.

[DUUUUUN. DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN DADADADA DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN. Kuroko has received the frog luchador mask!]

With that, he lets the sides slap down onto Kuroko's cheeks. The bloodlust in her eyes is hardly diminished by her new, or rather used, underwear mask but her ill feelings for him don't do anything for his ever expanding smile either.

[Well, thanks for the company ladies! It's been fun but I'd rather not trouble you all any more than already have. Good day!]

He walks in an almost skipping manner. It's been awhile since he's had this much fun with pretty girls.

In the first place that he had gone to before this one, there was nothing but giant muscle bound dudes all over the place. Though at least he was a fan of the characters that existed there so he didn't have any complaints. The next one had a girl with literal looks that can kill. Fun to mess with but altogether too hard to do so. The one after that, the one before now, was rather uninteresting in terms of powers or things of a supernatural nature and he couldn't find the main character anywhere in that world. Must not have been that popular, he figured.

Now that he was finally able to harass as he pleased, he was at peace with himself. As he walked out the door, he had to dive in between the cars in front of him to avoid the street light pole that nearly flattened him. He slowly gets up from his crouch and immediately ducks down to avoid another swipe as the pole flies directly over him, crashing into the buildings across the street.

"You...dare to touch onee-sama's underwear? You, someone less than dirt, really, truly believes that he has that right?"

From by the tire, he peeked ever so carefully at the source. A teleporting, twintailed, lesbian luchadore.

"You...you…YOU THINK YOU STILL HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE?!"

[Hm...I seem to have forgotten some errands I needed to run so I'll have to take a rain-check on all that. Bye bye!]

The joker in black fled across the city and the luchadore followed.

* * *

Kumagawa rests his weary body against some steel girders on pallets in a construction yard. Kuroko had been teleporting all sorts of things at him. His only thought at this point was that she's kinda pissed for some reason and wondered why. But the more pressing matter of subduing this girl takes precedence. Though really, a plastic bag could have distracted him from his former train of thought.

He wanted to test his Skills in the ways that Enshuu had suggested that they could be used. Their teacher-student relationship went both ways after all. Kumagawa had taught her all there is about being a Minus as well as the other 'classes', as it were, that their own existed alongside. She on the other hand taught him about the various ways that his Skills can be used as well as all there was to know about the system that espers exist under.

He can't really try out the Bookmaker trick that she thought up but the All Fiction one might be fun to use here. Especially against a teleporter. Speaking of twintailed devils, Kuroko had just teleported to the ground a distance from Kumagawa.

She had taken off the underwear from her face and was still very much so an angry little vessel of wrath. On her arm was the armband of Judgment.

"Did you really think you could hide from me, wretch?"

[Not really. Was just wondering when you were going to catch up!]

"Hmph. It doesn't matter to me. I'm here as Judgment now. You're under arrest."

[Ehhh? Where's your warrant, Miss Rent-a-cop? Where's your probable cause?]

She laughs, "I had it when you stole a middle school girl's underwear."

[EHHH?! That was mine though! She still has hers!]

"...Regardless. I'm taking you in punk. The sentence for something like this is-"

[Oh! Let me guess! Is it 5 minutes in the timeout corner? Or is it a life sentence?]

"No. It's death."

She disappears and then reappears next to another pallet of girders. One by one, they begin to disappear from it. On closer examination, he sees that they're actually being taken in chunks from their original parts. A hailstorm of steel rains down on the spot where he was standing. She couldn't see through the dust cloud she had created but she was sure she had him.

Despite what she said, that wasn't really meant to kill him. It was just a measure to incapacitate him with both fear and the noise caused by all the girders falling down on him. She was about to teleport to where he was so she could pin him down but his clear, confident voice cuts through her concentration.

[Wow, Kuroko-chan! That was pretty cool! Though it is a shame you can't do more than 286 some odd pounds. But that's okay! I can help you train that up!]

In a moment, he had suddenly appeared right in front of her with a fist raised to lay her out. Before she could do anything, he had blinked out existence just as fast as he had come. She darts her head around so much that it gives her a bit of whiplash. Eventually she stops and simply looks around with her eyes, warily.

Then, a powerful blow hits her in the head and launches her through the air, sending her tumbling along the ground. Once she had recovered well enough to think, she feels a shiver down her spine and throws her small body off to the side as a massive blow cracks the earth in the spot where she had been.

[Ow. It's effective and all but this really hurts. I can't quite All Fiction the pain away. I mean, I can but that doesn't mean that I don't still feel it. Oh Well!]

Kumagawa strides out of the resultant cloud with his hands in his pockets.

"A...teleporter?"

[Of a sort I suppose. It's...a bit different fundamentally speaking so I would just call it pseudo-teleportation! Pretty cool though huh?]

He disappears again but she sees him materialize on the wall of a building before he blips out. Catching on, she looks above her and sees a tiny, black dot in the sky. As it winks out, she teleports away to the stack of girders that she found Kumagawa leaning on and begins gathering her arsenal to fire them at the spot where she had been.

[I CAST FIST-huh?]

He had emerged right where she had been expecting him to, another storm of metal crashing down all around him. This time, she didn't wait for him. She puts herself right in front of him after bouncing from the girders. Smaller flashes of metal fly straight for his thighs only for them to pass right through where he had been a moment before. He flies with a dropkick aimed at her back but keeps on flying through that space as she pops up above him with a dropkick of her own. But that too misses.

They continually appear, reappear, materialize, dematerialize, and fly all around their environment with blows, punches, and kicks. Some made their mark but most didn't. To anyone watching, it'd be far too confusing for anyone to follow. Eventually they stand across from one another, exhausted.

"You can somehow decrease the distance between yourself and another spot. But since that doesn't take away from whatever momentum, speed, or force you can build up, you can take full advantage of that by letting yourself freefall for a bit before you attack. How do you survive the impact from the fall though? Someone as weak as you should have been a pancake of flesh on the first one you landed on me."

[...Magician's never reveal the secrets to their tricks you know. Plus, with the system you esper people are under, I doubt you'd believe me if I told you.]

"Still, I don't think you've been using your ability for this sort of thing long enough to have the experience needed to match mine. I'm a level 4 from the prestigious Tokiwodai. Do you really think you can match my skill?"

[Nah. I think I'll just cheat.]

He disappears. She prepares herself for what's to come. But you can hardly prepare for an entire building crashing down on you. For her part, she did well enough to avoid the first one but the second, third, and fourth buildings crush her completely. The catastrophic damage is removed from reality a second later, leaving a stunned Kuroko frozen in place.

[Hey! I got you! Does that mean I get the get-out-of-jail-free card?]

"Wh-what. What just. I-"

[Hmm. Again then I guess?]

"WAIT!"

[Hm? What is it?]

"...How were you able to do that?"

[The Earth is constantly moving through space right? I just used that!]

Kuroko had broken into a cold sweat and was shivering from her trying to contain her fear.

What he said couldn't be true. It had to have been some ability to create illusions. But if all that was just an illusion, then just what was their fight a moment ago? He would have needed an extensive understanding on not just her personality and habits but also the exact calculations required for her to jump between the 3rd dimension into the 11th and back. While not impossible, it's just plain overkill if somebody wanted her dead. There are so many more efficient and easier ways than that. So therefore, wouldn't that mean none of what she had experienced was an illusion?

She grips her forearm until her nails pierce the skin to stop herself from losing her mind to fear.

"Just what the hell are you?"

[A wandering loser. That's all. Nothing to really concern yourself with. But, are you ready to let me go or do you want to continue? I'm fine either way but I've got things to do so I'd appreciate an answer.]

Kuroko unconsciously takes a step back, his eyes narrow like a hawk's at the movement. The ensuing silence tears away at her nerves until Kumagawa lets out an exasperated sigh and scratches the back of his head.

[...So that's your answer then? Alrighty then. I'll see you around Kuroko!]

With that, he walks away.

"Just...just like that?"

[I didn't really want to fight to begin with.]

"Can't exactly trust those words when you've got a face like that."

[It's not my fault I was born this way. But, I usually have fun with these sorts of things anyway. I just needed to test some things out that Enshuu-chan taught me and you just happened along. That's all.]

"Enshuu-chan? What are-"

[Don't worry about it. Just go back to that bugzapper-neesama you love so much and forget about little old me. It's better for you this way.]

And so they go their separate ways. Kumagawa to wander around some more and Kuroko to go rest for awhile. For Kuroko, this is likely the last time she'll have to deal with things from his side but as for Kumagawa, his fight against the science of this world was just beginning today.

On a nearby rooftop, she giggles at the battle she had witnessed, "Well now. I certainly wasn't expecting that kind of a show ", her expression hardens, "But just what the hell was that chairman thinking, sending in a girl like me? I'm confident in my abilities but against whatever that was...haaah. The things I do for love."

* * *

An hour earlier and a few hundred feet away…

Shokuhou Misaki had been sitting with her followers at an outdoor restaurant when a man appeared out of thin air. Wearing a helmet that covered his entire body and a cheap, black suit, he sits across from her. No one else other than her seems to notice him but she doesn't make a big deal out of it. She lets their conversation lead to it's natural end before she sends them away using Mental Out.

"...So, what does the esteemed chairman want with me? Is he mad over my business with the Daihaseisai?"

"Hardly. This is something of...an alliance. Both of your interests align right now and it's also believed that you would be the perfect fit for eliminating an obstruction to your shared interest."

She sips on her tea absentmindedly.

"Is that so? Well, you can tell him that I politely decline because what I'd actually say to that would be far too rude and hurtful for you to fully reiterate, I'm sure "

The man laughs, "Yes, he expected as much. Frankly speaking, he doesn't honestly believe you can handle this situation, if only because I'm sure he can't either, but he has been...advised by someone else that you can absolutely do it."

"Is that supposed to provoke me into accepting? You'll have to do better than that mystery man."

"And what if I told you that shared interest was a certain, spiky-haired prince?"

Her cup stops short of her mouth and she puts it down, gently but firmly. In an instant, all the customers and staff at the restaurant had various cutlery aimed at the helmeted man's neck. Misaki draws a remote from her bag and sets it on the table in the same manner as the cup of tea.

"...Are you trying to pick a fight with me?"

It was hard to tell due to the helmet, perhaps it was a different story under there, but from what it seemed, he was perfectly calm.

"Again, hardly. _That_ line was the one I had been instructed to use in provoking you. Seems to have brought some results at least."

She offers nothing in reply other than a steely gaze.

"Well, at any rate, that wasn't a threat towards that boy. Rather, the obstacle I spoke of _is_ the threat."

The steel dulls slightly but the edge doesn't go anywhere.

"What are you talking about?"

The man slides a picture of a rather bland looking high school student over to her.

"The details aren't exactly known to me. Here's what I do know, an immortal named Kumagawa Misogi has entered the city and his goals, whatever they may be, will lead to this city's destruction. Though, I was told that was the best case scenario."

"Immortal? I'm seriously considering letting them loose on you and walk away, you know."

"Yes...I'm not too certain on the specifics on that either. Please understand, I'm just a negotiating messenger here. My purpose is to relay the information I was given and convince you to go along with the wishes of the ones that sent me. No more or less than that."

She lifts her cup and takes another sip.

"...And is my motivation just to kill a man I don't know because he might destroy Academy City? Just because it might involve that prince of mine? Do you realize how vague this all is?"

"No, though that is a part of the problem. The issue is that the two of them will cross paths and it is very likely that when it happens, Kumagawa Misogi will kill Kamijou Touma in exactly 0.5 seconds."

"Even if that's the case, how does the chairman, or whomever advised him, expect me to kill someone that's supposedly immortal? Why not just send the number 1 after him? I'm sure-"

"That's been tried already."

The cup goes down again and she picks up the remote, tapping it against her head.

"Then as I asked before, how do expect me to handle him if that brute genius can't do anything about it? I'm starting to run out of patience here."

"Sorry. As far as that goes, I was only told that your Mental Out ability was the only one that could possibly kill him."

She sighs, "Whatever. I'm not doing it so hurry up and get out of here."

"Maybe you've mistaken what I had said before. You, currently, are the only plan to stop Kumagawa Misogi. If you refuse, he will advance toward his goal. The closer he gets, the higher the odds of him meeting Kamijou Touma. When they do meet, he will try to stop Kumagawa and fail. Fatally. Your refusal means letting that boy die. I realize things aren't exactly clear...they weren't as forthcoming with that sort of information as to my liking. But, please. The one thing that was stressed to me was that your inaction here will result in catastrophe."

She remains silent, even as the man leaves and she sends the staff and customers back to what they were doing. Of course, most of that had just been for show. As much as she hates the idea of it, she can't just stand in the sidelines when Kamijou Touma is involved. Though, she needs more information, regarding to how strong her opponent is. She remains deep in thought as she drinks her tea. She brings her cup back to the table, accidentally knocking over the remote she left there to add to the mental pressure she wanted to lay on that mystery man.

As she leans down to pick it up, a physical pressure whirls over her and crashes against the wall of the restaurant. She warily peeks up over the bushes next to her and sees a boy being hunted after by a teleporting middle schooler that she vaguely recognized as being the overly clingy friend of the other level 5 at her school. They both became a mere blur racing down the street but she had caught the boy's face long enough to know that it was the same one from the picture.

"Hmm. Guess I'll just have to guide them somewhere I can watch comfortably from afar then "

* * *

It had been a short while since she had led those two into the construction yard. Her analysis of the fight was that it'd be pointless to try to get close to him. He's far too agile for her to handle. Never mind whatever that was he did with the buildings at the end. He did give something of a clue at the end of the fight however.

"He had to have been talking about Kihara Enshuu. Geeze , I really don't want to have to deal with another Kihara after that old man. Oh well. Hopefully since she's a little girl it'll be alright but...well if she's involved with that Kumagawa guy then I doubt she's alright in the head. Though given that she's a Kihara, I suppose that's a no-brainer."

She had sent a message out to her followers to look for Enshuu by asking if any of them recognized the girl in a picture she sent out to all of them, explaining that she was trying to help the girl's mother find her runaway daughter. They found her surprisingly fast. Being a social queen bee helps quite a bit.

The next step was to get her followers away by saying that it wasn't the right girl and sending in some espers under her suggestion to go capture the little Kihara. She figured that the job should only need 20 to take her. She waits in the lobby of a fancy hotel where traveling businessmen and rich tourists stay at, drinking tea and reading a magazine she picked up from the table next to her. She hears some of the people there begin to murmur but she pays it no mind.

It should have been easy.

A body, on of the ones under her suggestion, slamming onto the coffee table finally gets her attention dragged from her reading.

Turns out it was a little easier getting her there than she could have expected.

A bloodied Kihara Enshuu stands on the other side of the table with a broken baseball bat in tow.

"You're a difficult woman to find. Misaki-chan."

"And you're not, little Kihara But let's cut the chit-chat and get to business."

She attempts to offer Enshuu a seat but she ignores it, preferring to stand. Misaki shrugs her shoulders in a way that said 'it doesn't matter' and drank some more tea before she spoke again.

"First of all, you know Kumagawa Misogi?"

Nothing lights up in Enshuu's passionless eyes.

"Yes? No? Maybe? I don't know? Well I won't bother repeating myself. I've been sent to kill that boy."

"…Good luck then."

Misaki laughs, "What? I thought you were friends?"

"We are. But you can't kill him. Not permanently."

"Oh? But I was told by somebody that I could kill that supposed immortal."

"Is that so? Either way, he's too weak to be killed by you."

"Too weak? Whatever, I wanted to ask you about him because I wanted a bigger picture on how to beat him. Doubt I could kill him otherwise."

Enshuu raises an eyebrow, "And how do you hope to accomplish that?"

Misaki clicks on the remote she was hiding behind the magazine, "Catagory 011: Kihara Enshuu will answer all my questions truthfully and accurately "

"No. I don't think so."

Misaki was rather taken aback by this, after all she wasn't wearing any kind of defensive measure to protect herself from her power. Though, she was just a middle school girl. Adults may not be able to have esper powers but children definitely could.

"...A mind control ability?"

"Not exactly but...Kumagawa-oniichan said not to reveal things to opponents like some cheap Saturday morning villain. Well, I guess it doesn't matter since you can't exactly do anything about it. I was given an ability to take half of what makes my opponent the person they are by Kumagawa-oniichan. Since you're his opponent, that makes you my opponent. I can now borrow half of your power among other aspects."

"Half of my power?"

"Yes. Kumagawa-oniichan said not to explain it too many times or the readers will get annoyed by the story being bogged down in repetitiveness. Whatever that means."

Even at the beginning she felt this was way above what she could handle but this is just the icing on the cake. If what she said was true, Kumagawa was an immortal, superhuman, power granter. This all is incredibly ridiculous to her.

"So who sent you to kill him?"

"The chairman."

Misaki was a bit deflated at this point since it was _her_ that was supposed to be asking the questions here but at least she might get something for her troubles here.

"Aleister-kun? Why?"

"It was mentioned that he was going to kill someone I know."

"I was asking why Aleister-kun wanted him dead but-"

"Same answer either way."

"Then who is it?", she asks with slits for eyes.

"Kamijou Touma."

Now her eyes go wide.

"Touma-oniichan?"

"I'm beginning to suspect you just add those familiar type of honorifics for fun.

"Why does he think that Kumagawa-oniichan will kill Touma-oniichan?"

"I guess that proves it but you're ignoring my comments so I'll move on They think that when they meet, due to whatever that Kumagawa guy is going to do, he will kill Kamijou without fail apparently."

"Hn. That makes sense. He would try to stop Kumagawa-oniichan and probably get beat up quite a bit but...well I guess that's besides the point. Since I'm not going to give you the information you need and you can't force it out, that means you can't do a thing right? Give it up."

Enshuu tosses the broken bat handle onto the table and starts to walk away.

"Oh? What if I said letting me beat that oniichan of yours is what's best for him?"

She stops but keeps her back turned.

"I don't really feel like killing anyone but if it's for Kamijou-"

"Stop it already. I can tell you care for him more than you're letting on so there's no need to fake it by referring to him by his family name."

"...If it's for Touma, I'm more than willing to do everything short of killing Kumagawa."

Enshuu half-turns toward her, "And why would helping you be good for him?"

"I may not know about what he's trying to do but from what I hear, it could destroy this city. What will happen to him after that? Even if he survives it, where will he go? You might not be able to see him again depending on what happens "

She stays quiet for a time, lost in thought. Misaki allows her to stew on the words. She can tell that she had won her over. Though a lot of that was lies. She was just lucky she only caught onto her use of her hero's family name rather than him being able to live. That part wasn't in her control. If she could negate or shut off his powers, then the city's dark side will take care of things from there. She would try to see that he lives but odds of that happening are next to nil.

"...Hn. Hn. You would want me to help her like that, wouldn't you?", she mutters under her breath.

Misaki was on the verge of asking about it but Enshuu had come back to the table.

"I'll help you. On one condition."

Misaki wanted the Kihara's help but that's exactly what had her so on guard after her sudden 180.

"Okay What's the condition?"

"You have to see to it that he dies. Permanently."

* * *

 **Sorry it took a little bit for this update. I had a bit of a block that needed dislodging. But more than likely this will be the rate for updates, unfortunately. Enshuu isn't so much of a traitor as she is mentally unstable so don't expect too much there. In fact, her direct involvement in this story arc will be kept to a minimum since she isn't really important to this part right now. Also don't expect anything from mystery man. Doubt I'll use him as anything more than just a glorified messenger of Big Al's personal use or if it'll even be the same person every time.** **Anyway, the next chapter will have Misaki fighting Kumagawa on some Freudian-type levels! Well, after a fight or two of course.**


	8. Chapter 8

Psychological Battle  
Instant_Inadvertent_Understanding

* * *

Kumagawa-oniichan,

Please meet me at Misawa Cram School.

Regards,

An admirer.

This was the note Kumagawa found on his chest when he woke up this morning. Excited at the delusion that it may be a confession of some sort, he leaps up out his cardboard shelter, which destroys it since he burst through it's roof, and runs as fast as he can. Though it took 20 minutes for him to realize that he had no idea where that was and went about asking everyone he saw as to it's whereabouts. Everyone mostly ignored him, which irritated him just a little bit, and so he went into an alley where he thought some polite gentlemen such as himself might be. After some light conversation he got to the point of what he needed to know and the nice guys there gladly told him. All in all, it had been an hour and a half until he found his destination.

[Oh boy! Oh boy! I'm about to get a confession! I wonder who it is?! Could it be Enshuu-chan? Maybe that girl with the sweet legs at Zura-chan's house? Guess we didn't really talk so maybe that isn't so. Oh! Maybe it's that lesbian I fought yesterday! Man oh man, I'm not very picky as to the identity! But I wonder why she wanted to meet here? It looks a bit abandoned. Whatever! I don't care! I'm finally going to get a confession! Kumagawa's time is now! The golden age of Kumagawa is upon us!]

He runs at the door full force without even bothering to try to open the doors and crashes through the glass, All Fiction disregarding the lacerations. He runs and runs and runs some more. Through doors, windows, up stairs, up elevator shafts, until he finally reaches the roof. He is hit with momentary disappointment that she wasn't there but that is rejected as he thinks himself as being simply too early. He slicks his hair and roams about for the perfect position to be confessed to. These things need to have a proper picturesque feel to them after all.

He waits and waits and waits some more. You'd think he'd be at least a bit impatient at this point but he was still in high spirits after 5 hours. Eventually, the door opens and what appears is definitely not female.

A tall, built delinquent sort walks out with a sword about his size and stars in his eyes approaches. Kumagawa's smile freezes, then slowly becomes a foul expression.

[...Am I really not allowed that much happiness? Do I not deserve even a sliver of luck?]

The delinquent charges with his sword swinging to cut Kumagawa in half.

[WHEN WILL I GET THE HAREM I DESERVE DAMNIT?!]

Screws stick his assailant in place like a bug in a frame for a collection. As he loses consciousness, his sword dissipates. With a flick of the wrist, so do the screws.

[Well. This is about what I expected anyway. But is that really all?]

He speaks to no one in particular but the rapid sounds of feet running up the stairs answer him.

* * *

On the top floor of a nearby building, Shokuhou Misaki and Kihara Enshuu watch things unfold. They sit by a window facing the cram school with tea and cookies on a table between them.

"Still don't get why we're bothering with all this. I've already seen what he's capable of you know~."

"No, you haven't. I set this up for you so you wouldn't underestimate him like so many before you."

Misaki munches on a cookie.

"Hm. I still don't get why you're helping me anyway. You're friends aren't you?"

"We are."

"So, why do you want him to die? Do you have a crush on him maybe~?"

Enshuu shoots her a glare. Not one of anger but a curious sort of amusement.

"It's an experiment."

"In what exactly?"

"I've already given him all the proper information on how to counter espers with his power. I'm about to give you the advantage of being able to see that in action from a safe perspective. I want to see, given those variables, if it's possible for him to die and if he does whether or not he'll be able to come back again. I want to see those last moments of his."

Misaki takes another cookie from the plate.

"...Aren't the two of you friends?"

"Yes."

"Then-"

"It's just how Minuses do things. An elite like you wouldn't understand."

Misaki takes a bite and shrugs her shoulders. She had gotten used to Enshuu's nonsensical way of speaking and has long since stopped caring about it.

"Right, right~. Anyway, what's up with those screws of his? Is he an exception to Dual Skill?"

"Don't think of him as an esper. He isn't apart of your system or any other in this world. Those screws of his are like your remotes in that they are for giving his power a vector for him to better direct his power. Doesn't mean that he can't use them without the screws, it's just easier for him. That and I think he uses them because he thinks it's cool and stylish or something."

"Oh, so he's that sort huh. I can see why people underestimate someone with that kind of a personality despite the power he has. Which, by the way, you still haven't really told me about."

"Nor do I intend to. It'd ruin the experiment if I interfere too much. Well, I've done my part at any rate. The rest is up to you."

Misaki picks up another cookie as Enshuu gets up to leave.

"Oh? Thought you wanted to see his last moments? Maybe you're getting cold feet~?"

Enshuu continues to walk out as she speaks.

"You're not going to be able to give him a true death here so there's no point in staying. You're the 3rd ranking level 5 though so I'm sure you'll figure something out on your own without me to hold your hand."

Misaki frowns at this but otherwise let's her leave and continues to monitor the fight.

"Well, whatever. Let's just see how much immortality he has for me to burn off~."

* * *

This was the 26th time in the past 10 minutes that he's died.

No matter how many of them he takes out, more just replace the fallen. He had no idea of where they were coming from or why but he's having fun.

[Man, there's no end to you guys is there? Oh well! I'll just keep playing with you all until the girl of my dreams confesses to me! ...Though I doubt she'd confess to me even in my dreams but that's neither here nor there.]

None of them were being totally controlled by Misaki so far. They were only put under the suggestion that Kumagawa was an enemy they must destroy no matter what. But their instincts were beginning to win out over her power. Seeing someone getting burned to ash, crushed under debris, poisoned, torn to shreds, and really just murdered in all sorts of ways, get back up with a smile on their face no matter how many times or how many ways they do it is just unnerving.

"Don't falter now! He can't keep this up forever!"

Kumagawa turns his head to the bravest of them, a pretty boy of average height with the same stars in his eyes, and chuckles.

"Don't think you can laugh forever demon!"

[...Just how much longer are you going to watch for?]

The boy looks at him with confusion.

"What the hell-"

[I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to your master. Are you my secret admirer, Mastermind-chan?]

The boy's bewilderment continues for but a moment before his eyes, as well as everyone else's dull. Like machines without power, they all freeze in place. Then, a voice breaks the silence.

"Oh~? How'd you figure that one out?"

[WHOA, I WAS RIGHT?!]

He whips his body around to the small girl with black hair of about middle school age next to him. Her eyes were slightly different from how the others had been. Her stars shone and sparkled like sun on water.

"You don't need to play so stupid with me Kumagawa. And just so there's nothing for you to continually be a fool over, that note was just a lie made by your friend, Kihara Enshuu, to lure you here for me to eliminate you."

[Oh, that Enshuu-chan! I'm going to have to make her serve me for a whole day in nothing but kneesocks for this!]

The girl scrunches up her eyebrows.

"You don't care that she's betrayed you?"

[Treachery is cute.]

"Whatever. Even if you can continually revive yourself somehow, I bet there's a limit on it and I've got just about everyone in this city to use as bullets for the gun that will kill you~."

Every set of eyes in the room regain their stars and ready their powers. With fire, ice, earth, wind, heavy objects, electricity, gravity, weapons, light, shadow, projected clones, speed, strength, poison, disease, pain, and overall death, they ready themselves. Kumagawa sighs.

[Maaaaan. I really can't win against a force like this. This is just overkill for a weakling like me.]

"Maybe so. But it's what the bosses of this place want so I'll do it. Well, I'm only really going until you can't use your power anymore. I'd rather not get blood on my hands you know "

[Yeah. I know what you mean. I guess that's why you aren't personally going to show up.]

"That's right~."

He sighs again but instead of despair or exhaustion like she was expecting, it sounded rather relieved.

[What a shame. I just can't win the way I want to. Cheating suits me so much better after all.]

In response to his enemy's bloodlust all around him, he produces an elongated screw and launches it seemingly over everyone's head. Misaki's puppet laughs but stops suddenly. It wasn't a 'stop' like she had been interrupted by someone else making noise or her doing anything herself, it just cut out mid-laugh. She suddenly grabs onto her head and cries out in pain.

[This is how I should use Bookmaker. Right, Enshuu-chan?]

His screw had sunk deep into something invisible in the air and began horribly warping everything around where it struck. It was like a spreading disease on reality. Every one of the espers began to scream in agony as their powers went haywire. Some of the ones with a hardier constitution tried reining it in but to no avail. Flames, poisonous gases, debris, and every manner of power that had been prepared to kill him whipped about the room without regard to friend and foe.

But Kumagawa Misogi still wasn't finished.

[And All Fiction can be used like this too huh?]

As he stomps a screw into the ground, the floor explodes into fragments that float about and fly around the space it filled, the unrestrained powers causing them to propel even faster. Kumagawa bounces about his created battlefield, screwing whoever is unfortunate enough to cross his haphazard path.

One. Two. Five. Thirteen. Twenty-seven. Forty-two. He was culling the entirety of the army Misaki had gathered with simple flourishes of his screws. Eventually the Bookmaker screw in the air as well as the All Fiction one in a chunk of floating concrete disappear and take their effects with them. In part to how he had methodically pinned them to the floor pieces, none of his attackers were crushed under the debris as gravity caught up to them.

The only one to retain a level of consciousness was the one Misaki had puppeted. She tries to crawl away but a screw sticks her in place. Slow footsteps approach.

[Wow. Full disclosure here, I didn't think that first part was actually going to work. Enshuu-chan had mentioned that Bookmaker could be used, theoretically, on that AOL field you guys use but I'm not smart enough to understand all that nonsense. Wait. Was it AOL or was is MSN? Doesn't matter I suppose.]

The sounds stop just by the girls head. She tries to turn it to the sound but his smiling, upside-down face stops just an inch from her face as he stares into those star filled eyes.

[You won't have long for it but please give me a proper confession when I find you~.]

* * *

After he had used All Fiction on the mess he left, as well as on the memories of the ones that fought him, he had decided on seeking out Enshuu rather than his true attacker. It would be better for him to get a full scope of what was going on but that wasn't anywhere on his radar in terms of what he wanted her for.

[Hmm. Is just her serving me in nothing but kneesocks really enough a punishment here? Maybe if I threw those cat ears from before on her...nah, I don't want to trouble Zura-chan any more than necessary. But I still feel like it's not enough! Make her add nya to the end of her every sentence? No, the novelty would wear off if it went on for too long. It'd be like using your go to porn every single time you're horny, you'd just get tired of it before too long. Modified school swimsuit? That's a no too, her expression wouldn't be embarrassed enough to satisfy me. Hm, what about having her let me give her a naked massage? She'd be embarrassed then right? No, no. What to, what to do?]

These were the kinds of things he'd mutter while he walked the streets, without any attention paid to who, or how many, were watching.

"...Why don't you just kill me then?"

His head nearly snaps all the way back with all the creepiness of an owl if not for the physical impossibilities of such an endeavor.

[Because you'd escape my holy wrath, Enshuu-chan! Now, hurry up and put on these kneesocks with this modified school swimsuit! Start using lots of nyas too while I get the cat ears for the massage I'm about to give you!]

"No. I'd rather eat glass that a fat man who had eaten curry previously crapped out into a corpse."

[...Rather macabre aren't you? Is it that special time of the mo- oh. Have you even had one of those yet? Did you get the birds and the bees talk?]

Enshuu only offers up a blank stare.

[So no? Ok, well when-]

"I know that Misaki told you about what I did. You aren't curious about that?"

[Geeze, it's rude to cut someone off y'know? But I'm not really worried about you teaming up with that mastermind girl, Misaki was it? Anyway, I'm sure you have your reasons.]

Enshuu continues her deadpan gaze until she averts her eyes awkwardly.

"I...I just want to test your immortality. Or really just how those Skills work."

[A test huh? How was she supposed to do that anyway?]

"...The experiment isn't over yet so I'd like to save that for later."

She walks past Kumagawa as he grabs her arm.

[Enshuu-chan. I know you may be using this experiment thing as an excuse but you're also doing this to help me to save her from whatever is forcing her to fight me like I had Accel-kun, right?]

She kept her head faced away from him.

"...Did I do it right?"

[Yeah. Thanks.]

He lets go of her arm as he wanders off. Enshuu holds her hands up around her mouth as she yells at his receding back.

"Expect a call from me soon! When you fight next time, don't die!"

He simply waves in acknowledgment without looking back.

* * *

Misaki had somehow managed to get back to her apartment without anyone following but that didn't stay the feeling of impending doom. Her exhausted body had plopped itself down onto her couch as though she had just run a marathon.

"I have to agree with that Judgment girl that he had fought before, what in hell kind of monster was that? What are they thinking, getting me to face off against something like that? Perfect for killing him? Who the hell do they think I am? No wonder that number 1 couldn't do anything."

She mumbles her complaints to no one in particular. Or at least, that's what she had thought.

"Hmm. Well it is certainly true that you going up against him directly would be downright foolish but you mustn't lose heart, Misaki-chan!"

Misaki's head snaps up to the voice in a cold sweat. On the table in front of her sat a cross-legged, short-haired girl with a golden hairband in and a Tokiwodai uniform on. On her shoes read, 'Ajimu' by the toes.

"...Are you with Kumagawa?"

"Oh? No cute symbols? Is this pseudo-author really so lazy that he can't take the time to figure out how to get them through the website's system? Ah, but maybe just now was just because of how shell-shocked you are. Fine. I'll give you a break for now, pseudo-author, but you're on some thin ice."

Misaki rubs her temples. All of these weirdos were wearing on her nerves.

"Just...cut that idiotic talk out please. I'm not in the mood for it. What do you want anyway, 'Ajimu'?"

"Call me Anshin'in."

"Sure. What?"

Ajimu chuckles at her fatigue.

"Sorry! I do like to tease a bit too much. As far as to my relationship to Kumagawa...he was like a little brother to me, I suppose."

Misaki tenses herself for an attack but Ajimu waves her arms dismissively.

"No! No! The key to my previous sentence was the past tense. Right now since he's standing in the way of my goal, he's my enemy. No more or less than that."

"Enemy?"

It sounded off to her. The way Ajimu spoke of him wasn't of hate or disgust. It sounded more like how someone might talk about a friend that did well for themselves.

"Hey, now. I just said he's my enemy didn't I? How I speak of him shouldn't really matter, should it?"

A remote is whipped out like a gun from a cowboy's holster.

"Category-"

"You're stubborn, aren't you?"

Misaki's every muscle froze. Her mind wasn't being controlled, or at least she was sure it wasn't, but even so she couldn't move at all.

"Mother Time. It's one of a few skills I have that can manipulate the flow of time. I'm sure Kumagawa would be disappointed with the name but...I shouldn't ramble like this."

She scoots to the edge of the table and does a little jump across to the couch.

"Ah but, I didn't read your mind just then. All I was doing was a little bit of reading ahead is all. Anyway, I was the one who told that 'chairman' of yours that you should be the one to kill him. No one else is really capable of doing it that is so conveniently reached as you are. Well, other than myself but I can't be in this reality long enough to do it unfortunately. A few minutes here with you is the best that I can do."

Misaki's mind reels with question after question but, again, Ajimu waves this off.

"Don't concern yourself with any of that right now. Or ever really. You may be a valuable level 5 but I doubt Edd will have too many qualms with erasing you for digging too deep. No need to worry about all this though! He'll just scold me the next time I see him so he won't bother with you. Probably."

Misaki wanted to comment on that last bit but Ajimu takes advantage of her unwilling silence.

"Moving on, Kumagawa isn't the sort to be killed with regular methods. Bookmaker may be a skill powerful enough to make even myself want to avoid dealing with it but for the rest of you minor characters, All Fiction is too much of a hurdle to get over."

Bookmaker? All Fiction? She wasn't sure of how she was doing it if she wasn't reading her mind, but by now she has accepted this person's palaver to be her only method, shy of fighting Kumagawa some more, to find out more about him.

"Oh, I suppose that girl hadn't told you anything of worth huh? Not entirely unexpected, it's why we're having this conversation. Bookmaker is his original Minus that allows him to forcibly make anyone, and apparently anything, as weak as he is. Given that he is physically, mentally, spiritually, and really just encompasses the entire definition of being weak, he can take down beings at my level with ease. All Fiction was originally a skill that I had given him called Hundred Gauntlets, a skill that can reverse casualty, but it got warped by him into the Minus that can make anything into nothing. I'd apologize but the circumstances I was under were dire enough to need to switch Bookmaker with Hundred Gauntlets. Well, you don't need to know that much. Just know that these powers are directly linked to one's personality."

This was all going so over her head that the entire conversation may as well be in the Andromeda Galaxy from her standpoint.

"Hahahaha! Yeah, this would be a little confusing for anyone outside our series but as they say, it can't be helped. All you need to know is that killing him is easy for you. An infant could probably do it. But since All Fiction saves him from ever experiencing a true death, there's no way someone like you could beat him, let alone kill him as directly as you've tried."

She was beginning to get a bit irritated at her manner of blatant disrespect. Misaki wonders why the damn woman can't do it herself then.

"Come on now. I'm not saying that it is a matter of skill or intelligence, it's just that there really aren't many that can get even a chance at permanently killing him. As to your last point, again, I can't be in your reality for too long. It's far too fragile to support the few skills I have. Right now, you're the only one that has that chance, unfortunately. You just have to be a bit more roundabout with it."

She remembers Enshuu saying something vaguely similar but she wasn't connecting any dots here.

"That's why I'm here. That support loli of his refuses to give you that piece of vital information and I'm not too sure you'd have ever figured it out. Not for lack of trying or intelligence on your part. It's just so severely simple that it's easily overlooked."

Ajimu leans in and whispers in her ear.

"Just get in his head a bit more when you erase his mind. He might be more willing to let go of those skills if you give him some good dreams maybe."

With that, she vanishes. Misaki moves her raised arm, experimentally. Then she puts the remote away and relaxes back into the couch.

She couldn't quite get it. She had thought of doing a mind wipe but given that he's such a difficult person to approach without getting messed up, or with in many females cases, it shouldn't be possible for her to sneak up on him. Ajimu's suggestion, if it was what it sounded like, is even more of a horrid idea than trying to brute force the situation. That and even if she did the wipe, she was sure he'd just regain his memories.

Her eyes open wide in realization.

"..I see now. Still don't quite know who you were, Anshin'in, and I definitely don't trust someone that knows the chairman personally but thanks for the advice. I'll take him out of both of our miseries~"

* * *

[So that's why you called me over!]

"...I hadn't said anything yet but whatever it is you're thinking, you're probably wrong."

After her conversation with Ajimu, Misaki had Enshuu set up a meeting with Kumagawa in the middle of a park. Currently, they sit at a table across from one another.

[Eh? Really? So you aren't going to try to kill me anymore?]

Misaki's half-lidded eyes go up in shock.

"Eh?"

[Oh, so that's what I had wrong then? WAIT, DOES THIS MEAN YOU'RE ACTUALLY GOING-]

"No. No. No. With every fiber in my being, no. I just hadn't thought that you'd actually get straight to the point before your usual idiocy. But I suppose you wouldn't want to be cut short of that~"

Her comment causes his shameless pride to irritate the back of his unkempt scalp.

[Ehehehehe.]

"Well, that aside, I have something of a gamble for you."

[Oh? Are your panties on the line? Otherwise, I don't know if I can muster up the proper motivation for this.]

"No but maybe it's something you'd be more interested in~"

[More interested in? YOUR CHASTITY?!]

"Anshin'in."

His usually jovial behavior and mannerisms vanish on hearing her name. Misaki's grin widens to make up for the loss.

[...What about her?]

"I met with her just recently. She told me about all sorts of things. Wouldn't you like to know?"

[It's probably just the same crap she tells everyone else.]

Misaki leans forward, propping her chin underneath the backsides of her hands.

"Then it's fine for you to let this sort of an opportunity go? Enshuu had let me know that you're trying to find her. Maybe it's nothing you don't already know but just the chance that it might be something more should have peaked your interest~ But if that's not the case-"

[Enough. What're we doing for this challenge of yours?]

She pulls out a remote from her bag.

"All you have to do is let me enter your mind."

[That's it?]

"Yep~ That's it. If I can't kill you this way then this whole mission is a wash anyway."

Kumagawa's eyebrows scrunches up as he crosses his arms.

[And you couldn't do it without my consent?]

"I can. But with the way you are, there's no way I could try unless I got you off your guard like this. You'd have just hit me with those screws and walked away muttering some self-defeatist crap like you usually do. This way, there's a better chance for me to win."

He sighs.

[She's rubbed off on you, I see. Fine. It's better for me to have the odds against me.]

"Good. No complaints now~"

She raises the remote and points it at Kumagawa.

"Category 030 / Leave Kumagawa Misogi unconscious for the next 24 hours."

His body slumps onto the table.

"Now for the finishing touches. Category 820 / Place Kumagawa Misogi within a dream made of his fantasies."

She gets up and signals the men waiting in a nearby van. Two of them come and pick him up while they all get inside.

"Take us to the warehouse."

"Hey. I know you're a level 5 and all but is just that much fine? If putting him to sleep was all it took then-"

"Shut up~"

With a click of a remote, the driver does as he's told and takes them away.

"Once we're there, I'll go inside to see that his memories get wiped safely. Without any way to defend himself, and his mind cleared of everything other than the knowledge required to breathe, he should be able to die once and for all. I'll be putting that long journey of yours to an end, Kumagawa. No need to thank me though. I'm doing all this pro bono~"

* * *

"Are you sure this will be enough?"

"Yes. Without a doubt, he'll have his mind erased of everything and he'll be yours to do with as you please. Though I think with the expiration on him, it'd be iffy to put him in the fridge next to that pretty boy on the second shelf. But that's just my opinion."

"Then he's finished."

"Of course...although I still have my doubts."

"What? Do you think he'll really be able to use All Fiction to recover without a personality?"

"That's not it. She has a bigger heart than she'd care to admit but it is even weaker than she'd ever realize. Kumagawa is too similar to Kamijou for her not to make a connection and once it's made, the plan will almost certainly fail."

"He's too twisted for anyone to link to the Imagine Breaker."

"I wouldn't know about that. He's got a certain talent for worming his way into other's hearts. The conditions as they are would say that it's possible. But that's not the only threat here."

"What else is there?"

"His fantasies are bit...much for the mind to handle. Even for me."

"Ha. I somehow doubt that the Mental Out will have troubles even in that psychopath's mind."

* * *

"...Seriously?"

It should have been what she had expected. Given how he acts, if his best possible dreams were to be like this then there shouldn't be any surprise for the one that gave it to him. But that's just how big of an ego she was nearly drowning in.

It was like a festival to celebrate Kumagawa's existence. There were banners with his name riddled throughout the streets. Men dressing and speaking like him. Women swooning over his pictures. Children fighting over who got to be him in the games they play. People cheering at his passing like he was some kind of god.

The cherry on top of all this being the gigantic float that he rode to school as he waved to everyone, wearing a majestic set of a crown and robe. No, that's not right. The oddest thing of all was his actual head on a body with rippling muscles that looked as though they were going to burst out of his clothes the moment he flexed.

[Good morning everyone! So nice to see all my fans out today as well! Sorry though but the breast signings will have to wait until after the baseball tournament. But in return, I'll be sure to come to it with my 400th national trophy! Please wish me luck everyone!]

The cheers grow past their deafening roar and start vibrating the windows around them.

"This guy...really loves himself huh? No. I shouldn't be standing here saying such obvious things. I guess it's fine for now. I've got some time to wait while everything gets erased anyway."

As he hops from his gilded throne, things get even more bizarre going into school. Teachers stop him at the gates to ask for his help.

"Kumagawa-san! Please help me with this test! I know it's above your level but I'm not sure of what pace to set for the others."

"There's an unruly delinquent that transferred in that needs to be talked to but I'm nowhere near as competent as you. Please!"

"K-kumagawa-kun, please have my children! I know I'm 35 years old but..."

This was only the beginning.

"Hey! Can you help me study for this test we're going to have? If I don't score well, my Mom will kill me!"

"You're still on for karaoke right?"

"No way! He has to help out with the karate club!"

"To hell with that nonsense, he's helping out with the chess club. You guys had him yesterday!"

"K-kumagawa-senpai, please have my children! I know I'm as flat as a board but..."

Still just the tip of the iceberg.

"Whoa, Kumagawa-senpai! You sure get a lot of love letters huh? I'm so jealous!"

"How do they even manage to cram so many in there anyway?"

"Holy crap! One of those is even from the school idol!"

"K-kumagawa-san, please have my girlfriend's children! I know she's not to your standards but..."

At every chance, people stopped his giant frame from lumbering around the halls for one matter or another. It was honestly giving Misaki quite the headache. Eventually they came to what appeared to be a room for the student council. She had made it so no one can even perceive her so she wasn't worried about much but the entrance to the room disturbed her a bit. There was nothing outwardly suspicious about it but it still felt like something was off about it.

"Ah, President! Good to see you! Today's girls are waiting inside for the usual contest for your love. Good luck!"

[Ahaha! It's somewhat troublesome to have so many girls vying for my affection but if this is the only way they can satisfy themselves then who am I to stop them?]

Misaki had been wearing a look of extreme disgust for awhile now but with that comment, her level of outright revulsion was reaching a point where it may just gain sentience and spread out to worlds far and wide to tell of Kumagawa's character.

"Don't try to say that shit while you're clearly enjoying all this. Ahhh. But I can't let this get to me. He's going to die anyway so might as well let him have his fun. Only a few more minutes til it's done. I'll just have to endure a bit longer.

The door opens to reveal a room that absolutely shouldn't be in a school. Pink lighting glows dully about the space. A large heart-shaped bed that would look more fitting in a love hotel situates itself in the middle of the room with several naked women on it. One of which included-

[Misaki-chan? You're among this morning's group?]

"Oh absolutely, Kumagawa-sama~ Today is the day where I make you mine!"

"..."

Her hate had just joined it's older brother in it's quest along with it's twin, her bloodlust.

"No way! He's mine!"

Said a long haired beauty with breasts even more outrageous than Misaki's own.

"No mine!"

Said a twin tailed, short girl, with only a green Judgment armband on.

"He's my beloved, get out of the way!"

Said a rather rough looking girl similar to the first.

"N-no...he's mine..."

Said a girl with flowers in her hair.

Misaki had heard and seen some that she knew as well as others she didn't but the recognition was being phased from her increasingly murderous mind. She wasn't even aware of her bleeding lips from biting down on them.

"...I can't take it anymore. I don't care if this ruins everything and if I'll regret losing this chance, I have to cave that stupid face in!"

As Kumagawa gets swamped with a myriad of beautiful women, Misaki grabs a fire extinguisher and drags it over.

"...Wait. I'll just change this into an ax. Yeah~ I'll be able to carve him up better this way."

At this point, the dream Misaki had pinned Kumagawa to the bed and sat straddling his chest.

"Are you ready for this, Kumagawa-sama~?"

"O-only if you are."

The real Misaki lets the ax scrape and grind along the way as the other one giggles and runs a hand through her hair. The fake, however, tears the hair off of her along with what appears to be a face.

"Then, I'd say I'm about as through with this shitty dream as she is. Have fun in the afterlife, Kumagawa."

The girl plunges a blade into his face.

"A-anshin'in?"

The world began to be eaten up by a spreading darkness as Ajimu's head, still on Misaki's naked body, turns to her.

"Sorry. It was irritating me as well. But, you're already nearly there right? Just ride through the void and you'll be at your goal soon enough!"

Everything went black.

* * *

From the moment he had memory, he knew that his life was to be a horrible one.

He hadn't had a bad family life. His dad worked a salaryman type of job while his mom was a housewife. They never raised a hand or yelled at him. They simply let their son live his own life to himself. But that didn't necessarily mean that it was good. Neither of them paid much attention to him or what he did or where he went off to. He only existed at that house. It was just an address where he happened to reside. That was all.

He'd get attacked on the way to school which would make him late. No one was ever willing to approach him. Everyone constantly avoided him. The few that did interact with him, whether for good or ill, were sucked into his misfortune without him trying. His grades were poor, his athletic ability to match. He would try to save someone but it would never come out that way. His methods could never be seen as being for the good of someone. But it was all he knew.

If the world was going to decide to make him into a villain, then what sense is there in fighting it? He would crush other's dreams. Kill people in exceedingly violent ways. Ruin the lives of anyone that got to close. All so that no one else would have to suffer for it. Though, he forgot about that reason at one point. He remembered again later, the guilt coming back threefold.

Despite this, he always had a smile.

Even when things went bad. Even when people gave him those looks. Even when his parents ignored his misfortune. Even when he fell in love with a girl knowing full well that it wouldn't ever work or that she'd ever look at him the same way. Even when he fails at everything he tries for. Even when he knows that life is as pointless as death.

He continues to try to care about something. Anything.

He still smiles and tries to fool himself into thinking it's going to be alright. He tries to rationalize it all as just being the fault of whoever wrote his shitty character that he's a born loser. He smiles and helps out anyone he meets, regardless of however much he hates them or vice versa.

Because maybe he'll finally save someone he'll give half a damn about. But that's just a lie within a labyrinth of lies that he can't even see out of anymore. In the end, he just doesn't want to see anyone suffer as he has. He fully accepts his mantle of being the most unfortunate loser ever born so no one else has to.

After seeing all this, somehow Misaki couldn't quite shake the idea that most of this sounded eerily similar to someone else she knows. Even more startling to her than the relation between Kumagawa's personality and her prince's was the thought that he wasn't too dissimilar from herself as well.

But this went both ways.

Kumagawa saw all her memories just as she had his.

He saw her meeting one of the few people that she cares for, the clone Dolly, for the first time. As well as her despair on realizing her condition. The efforts put into saving her. The joy she felt on getting her first friend back. Her light teasing of Misaka Mikoto. Her everyday life surrounded by her followers. All of it came flooding into his mind like a torrent.

But, the majority of it was filled by one boy.

He hadn't done much at first. He was just some guy that she kept perpetually bumping into. They'd talk about the most nonsensical things. He'd constantly tease her and she'd constantly get angry over it. Yet, she didn't mind it at all that much. He slowly became someone that she'd seek out in a crowd whenever she was out and about. She'd look forward to their accidental meets.

Of course, Kumagawa also saw how it all ended as well.

He had saved her life without any regard to his own. Despite the fact that they hadn't really known each other to the point where it could be said that an average person would stick their neck out so far. He had paid a price for it. In return for his kindness, she had used a risky maneuver to save him. But that too had a cost to pay. Even if they met again, he would never remember her. All she would ever be is someone with a familiar face. Odds were that this condition could never be recovered from.

She could've left it at that, satisfied that he is still alive. After all, it should be impossible for him to regain those memories since he will always forget her whether or not it's from the past, present or future. Indeed, it may have made the pain hurt less.

But she had decided to spit in the face of those odds.

Even if she is forgotten. Even if it pains her every time he regards her with a vague familiarity. Even if those already tender wounds get irritated from seeing others by the side she sought after.

She decided to never give up on him. She'd find a way.

As a Minus, Kumagawa had loathed her at first. Enshuu had given him dossiers on all the potential threats within Academy City but one of the few that stood out was Misaki. She's blessed with a charming personality that captures a great many that she meets, excellent grades, beauty, power, and, overall, a winner at life. She seemed to be just as much an opposite on the surface as Medaka had been.

But now that he sees a great bit of himself in her, both in terms of personality as well as motivations, he begins to doubt the system of Abnormals and Minuses that he had understood as being valid measures of one's personality.

Their collective drowning in each other's past and personalities as they come to understand one another comes to an abrupt halt.

* * *

There was nothing but blank, white space surrounding them. They stood at about ten feet from each other. At this point, they knew each other better than most ever did in their lifetimes. With but a glance at one another, they knew that the other had seen everything about them. No words could be said after witnessing something like that. But even so, Misaki tries to break their silence with her gloved hands clenched.

"...I...just can't accept you."

[Yeah.]

"Even if you were really like that, you're still a devil. You'd still try to kill him, I'm sure."

[Yeah.]

"There really isn't anything I can do here. If I were to spare you, it'd be bad for my conscious to let someone like you free. You'd just destroy the world to save An-Ajimu."

[Heh.]

She narrows her eyes.

"What?"

[I get it already. You don't have to feel so bad about it.]

There was something like a black mist eating away at his existence. His body had become translucent.

"What're you talking about?! This is what I wanted!"

[I know better than that. You're just as softhearted as me. I'm...sorry for forcing you to this. But I know even with my memories in your head, you'd have still done the same. It's what I would do in your position after all. So please, stop feeling guilty. It'd leave a bad aftertaste for the both of us.]

"Don't. You're not someone that apologizes. You're a goddamn monster. This...is exactly what I wanted."

Her voice shook as she spat out these words. Kumagawa can only smile however.

[Yeah. I know. That's why I'll just have to keep fighting.]

A hazy screw already on the verge of dissipating appeared in his right hand.

"You can't," she nearly whispers as her voice raises to an indignant roar, "There's no point! You're already this far gone! All Fiction has gone back to the point so that it can't make things with emotional attachment into nothing! It's probably even worse than that so-"

[You know I gotta try. I have to. Otherwise, I won't be able to save her. It's the same for you, isn't it?]

She clenches her teeth.

"Do you really expect to be able to match me here? I'm completely within my element in here! Out there you may have had a chance but in here, where I can completely reign as queen, you're doomed to vanish!"

His smile stretches wider but there was no mirth to be found in his usually frivolous eyes.

[You know better than that. I've always been an introvert, despite my contradictory appearances. You should know, right? We've both been more inhabitants of our own heads more than we have been of the outside.]

The haze about the screw seemed to still itself as he gripped tighter onto it.

[We stay cooped up in here for our own reasons. You, for your past revelries. Me, for all my fantasies of winning. While inside, we have built great walls about ourselves. Ones that no one really has

managed to truly knock down or otherwise get over. It shouldn't have been possible given the human condition but we managed to do it entirely by accident.]

His screw regained it's solidity but his body was still fading.

[So you should know better than anyone that this is _my_ territory. We're not in your fortress of solitude. This one is mine. All of my imagined victories live here. If there's anywhere in the world where I can actually win something, it'd be here. Here in my fortress of solitude, _I'm_ the one that reigns sovereign!]

He charges but she does nothing. She doesn't want to yet does. Her motivations are in opposition with one part wishing him death because he was a threat to the one she loves but the other part simply couldn't allow that to happen. But, she doesn't have to do anything anymore.

[...I went on for too long huh? I guess I can't even win in my dreams. How fucked is that?]

His screw had stopped just short of her face before it left reality. All that was left was everything from the chest up.

"...Why didn't you-"

"Because even if I love her, I can't just sacrifice someone else that I care about for her. It's...not that she isn't important but...it's difficult to describe. It'd be like choosing one family member to live while the other...dies."

"With the way All Fiction was then, you might've survived."

"Hm. Maybe. But...then none of this would've happened. I don't want to forget someone that actually came to understand me. Even if it wasn't exactly by choice."

Her eyes had grown a bit misty as she watches everything up to his face disappear. The thing that got to her most was the smile. Not once had it left his face.

"...That's it? That's all you have after you forced me to this? Just an oh well, I'll try better next time? You're lying! I know you don't want to die so stop it with that stupid smile!"

"Sorry. But it's...all I can do. I have to laugh now or...I won't be able to cope."

"Are you really fine with her just offing herself like that?! Even if you're dying now, you won't see her again even in the afterlife! Existence, itself, will probably need to be destroyed for her suicide! Are you seriously letting her go through with something like that?!"

"It's fine, Misaki. It's not actually but...you didn't know any better. Thank you. Friend."

With that, it was done.

* * *

Inside the Windowless Building, the one above the city's order and the one even further above him talk.

"There. I told you your doubts were unfounded."

Ajimu sits atop her little desk as she shoots the ever tube-bound, Aleister, a look.

"Still don't believe he's dead. He's kinda like a cockroach, really."

"You really think that he can use All fiction without a personality or memories?"

"He's worked with less. Honestly, even without that Skill he twisted from mine, he'd be just as dangerous as he is now. If not more so."

Aleister's chuckling causes several bubbles to rise upward.

"He's nothing without those powers."

Now it was her turn for smug laughs.

"That's what makes him so dangerous. He's enough of a threat without his powers that I'd say he has about 5 minutes against me."

"Only 5?"

"For reference, you are at about 4 minutes 15 seconds, Edd boy."

She had disappeared before he could reply but, with a rather awkward looking upside-down shrug, he disregards her usual ramblings. There's no way he could've survived such an encounter. Well, that's just one man's opinion at any rate.

She had woken back up in the warehouse with tears streaming down her cheeks. She almost lost it but when she looked up towards the goons that were waiting to haul off the shell that was known as Kumagawa Misogi, she wiped her tears from her sleeves and told them it was fine. And it was. He no longer resided in that body. Misaki gave her report to the higher ups and was on the way home but she saw Enshuu.

"Is he dead?"

"...Yeah."

Enshuu gives out a noncommittal sigh.

"Which means it failed. I suppose that's good since this was just a test but-"

"What are you talking about? I wiped everything from his mind, even down to the basic biological functions. They should've cremated him by now. He's nothing but ash."

"His old body is, sure, but given how you spit those words out, I'd say he still has something of an outlandish chance of appearing anyway."

Misaki gives no response to this or what she yells at her back as she keeps on her way.

Once she had come back, she plopped herself onto the couch again. She lay there motionless for a time before she stared hard at something leaning on one of the walls. Given her behavior from before, one would think that she'd be crying. But that's not something she'd really do so it all just seemed fake. Especially when a ghost of someone sits on the wall.

"...So when are you going to start haunting me? Or is that what this is?"

[Eh? I dunno~]

Without rhyme or reason, Kumagawa Misogi walks over, bringing a chair to sit in along the way.

"How are you still alive? You shouldn't even be here right now."

[Who knows? Maybe it was because my memories got that ingrained into you. Maybe it was because I'm too weird to die. Maybe it's even because of your intensified, burning love for me!]

She laughs without any sarcasm or disgust to it.

"Sorry but no. You're like a brother to me after all this has been taken care of~"

[Hahaha! Yeah! Nobody out there actually fantasizes about impregnating their sister, right?]

"Nobody worth a damn~"

[OW. My pride…]

They joke like this for some time. Somehow, despite the heavy atmosphere from earlier, they did this naturally. It was like watching two old friends meet for drinks. Just lighthearted talk. But even this sort of stress relief has to end.

[So uh Misaki?]

"Hm?"

He looks down for a few moments before meeting her eyes.

[If you want, I can use All Fiction to fix his-]

The answer came before he was finished.

"Sorry but no."

[Why not?]

She chews on this for a minute or two before answering.

"Would you like it if Ajimu was saved by someone else in a matter of moments?"

[Yeah...makes sense. Just figured I'd offer.]

He scratches the back his head. His hand droops ever so slowly. No more words to be said. But even so, they needed the validation from the one that saw so deep into their hearts. They really wanted to ask whether or not it was alright for them to keep going like that but it is just a mite bit embarrassing. Thus, it goes like this.

"So what now?"

[You already know. You?]

"You already know."

They leave each other's path for now but they have forged an unbreakable bond that not many can say to have even one. One is beautiful. The other is ugly. One has smarts. The other doesn't. They are complete and utter opposites of each other's personalities but regardless, they have become friends of a deeper level than either ever has. At least, they have their underhanded methods in common.

Their long fight ended on the night of November 18th.

The night before the Crawling Minus traded blows with the Imagine Breaker.

* * *

 **Mid-week updates! Sorry this one took a bit. Writer's block and work don't make for conducive writing elements. The way I see it is that without personality, none of the Medaka Box Abnormals or Minuses would have their powers. Therefore if Misaki had just mindwiped herself of anything relating to Kumagawa, then that would be it for and to the review I saw from Hachiman, since I guess I can't respond to that one, I'm not saying that because of power or because I'm biased, it's just what I saw as a logical progression in the story. Kumagawa can beat Touma, at least the first go around, because of how much Touma relies on information. Just about any time he runs into some magic side stuff he has no idea as to the rules of, he usually gets beaten badly. But if it's something he's dealt with/just about any esper type stuff, he wins with ease. In the first instance of Kumagawa vs Touma, at least in this story, Kumagawa has plenty of info on him and Imagine Breaker. Given he has an ability to make things spontaneously appear anywhere he feels like, which might say pin Touma so as to not allow for movement or use of IB, the first win should be his in this scenario. Even outside of my stuff, Kumagawa has enough mobility and power to wreck him. But this all just as a first encounter. All Touma needs is information and some good ol' trial and error. Then, he has more than a fighting chance at getting a win. Another thing to keep in mind is that this is all without considering dragon shenanigans because Kamachi doesn't want to reveal jack about it. Though when it does come into play against Kumagawa, I don't plan on Skills working on it. Yet. Still under consideration. I don't think it negates powers but that bit is just some liberty I'm taking due to how vague it is. But trust me. I try to think these things through as much as possible. Sorry if this got too long. Got a bit butthurt that someone thinks that I'm just jumping the gun because I'm some fanboy of whoever. Anyhow, far as updates go I'd tell you not to expect anything regular. Work is getting more and more retarded lately. But it'll be cool! Touma vs Kumagawa, Kumagawa vs Thor, and probably some other crap spliced in there! See you in the next one...hopefully soon.**


	9. Chapter 9

Misplaced Hate  
Battle_Preparations

* * *

November 19th. The day of the Ichihanaran Festival, an event where schools compete in various competitions against each other. Considering it was a city wide festival among schools with cutting edge technology, it was a busy day for everyone involved. Though, even for the ones not participating, it was still busy.

Ollerus, the man who had given up becoming a Magic God, had just finished dropping off Kamijou Touma and was on his way to meet some people that he saw as integral to stopping GREMLIN, the organization dedicated to bolstering the One-Eyed Othinus's powers. He needed a method for getting close enough to Othinus to use the Fairy Spell crafted from the inspiration that someone had given him short of a month ago. For that, he needed to convince one of the major players in their organization to let him take their place, as it were. Which is why he wasn't surprised to see Thor, a member of GREMLIN, sitting at one of the tables in the restaurant they had agreed to meet at. What was surprising was that the one that had given him the general concept to create the Fairy Spell, Kumagawa Misogi, had just gotten there himself.

"I hadn't expected for you to show up early. Or at all even."

[Heya Olly! Haven't seen you since that little scuffle I had back in Hong Kong.]

"You call slaying a vampire on the verge of becoming a Magic God and fighting an elite unit from Annihilatus, little? Never mind fighting with Silva and I on top of all that. I'd really hate to see what you consider large."

Ollerus wears a genuine smile as they reminisce about their first meeting at the end of WW3. It's an unusual sight to see someone speaking with Kumagawa like an old friend would, but the quality of the stressful situation they had found themselves in on that day was enough to strengthen the bond they shared.

"Oh? You two know each other?"

Thor's words were nearly lost as they exited around the chow mein he was eating as Ollerus and Kumagawa sit down at the table.

"Yes. He's the other member of our anti-GREMLIN force, as it were. Well, I had invited him but I wasn't honestly expecting him to come."

[Geeze, Olly! Aren't we friends? If you ask me to come help, of course I'd come running!]

"Really? So you aren't here because you expected a free lunch?"

[...Anyway! So what did you need me for? I gave you the idea for that spell so I can't imagine what else you might need a guy like me for.]

Ollerus laughs at the first comment but his expression gets serious.

"Even if I hadn't expected you, we do need you for this plan to work. Othinus is very close to attaining her goal of becoming a perfect Magic God. For this, it seems she needs to capture someone that hasn't been dyed in the colors of science or magic."

[Um.]

"No, she doesn't seem to be aware of your existence yet. Though even if she did know about you, I doubt she'd use you. Your abilities exist from outside of this world and thus, outside of her plans that are based in this world. She'd have to scrap everything and start over with your Skills being the foundation. Although, I doubt there are many magicians that can understand well enough about your system to be able to gain a Skill to begin with. At any rate, the one that meets these conditions is Fraulein Kreutune."

Thor, finished with his bowl, frowns slightly.

"Othinus wants her for more than just her lack of color or whatever. From what we could gather Kreutune has lived for centuries and according to records dating from the dark ages, no form of torture or execution could harm her. With that kind of durability, she'd easily survive whatever designs that Othinus has for turning her into a holistic esper. So, Ollerus, what exactly do you intend to do about that?"

"On the surface, it will appear as though my side is making a last ditch effort to stop Othinus and will do everything we can to force a change within Kreutune so that she can be killed in her new form. But that's just the appearance. My actual plans involve a bit more than that. I want to have a massive gathering of powerful magicians so that Fiamma and I can infiltrate GREMLIN and take it all down from the inside."

"So you plan to just let her take Kreutune then?"

"No. You must find a way to rescue her so that I may bring in a substitute I have in mind so that I may influence the creation of Gungnir. But regardless, she needs to have her attribute that separates her from the concept of what we view as human neutralized before we can bring that substitute up to Othinus. For that, we need Kumagawa here."

Thor looks over at Kumagawa's beaming face as he waves.

"And how do you plan on removing that from her? Do you have some sort of spell for that?"

[Spell? No, no. I may technically be at that age where I can be called a wizard but for the girl that exists outside of y'all's common sense, I will strike her down with with a Skill to match!]

"You guys have mentioned that Skill thing for a bit now, what the hell is it?"

Ollerus drinks his water and motions for Kumagawa to explain.

[Well, you won't believe me, but I come from another world. One where people have inexplicable powers called Skills. Now powers and results vary but with me, I have the perfect way of bringing that Kreutune girl down to being a regular human. Though, I can't really say it'll be good for her but at least it'll get her out of this whole crazy thing. That all being said, is that all there is to her?]

"Well, another thing that we were able to gather was that she's trapped in this city's Windowless Building because she has some kind of insane learning ability. Not that we know specifics. Why?"

[She just seems...rather like someone else I know.]

Ollerus raises an eyebrow.

"Like that Ajimu you spoke of?"

[No. Well, sorta. It almost sounds like she's a prototype of sorts to Medaka-chan. None of you know her or understand that much but she's someone that could learn any Skill she happened to come across. Which makes me wonder if maybe Anshin'in was trying to do something around Medaka-chan's concept in mind. Though, it's apparent she abandoned the idea but still. Hearing about Kreutune gives me something of a chill down my spine.]

"I would have thought her immortality would be more in common with you."

[Maybe. Maybe she was made as something like a hybrid of Abnormal and Minus. But that just sounds retarded so I doubt it. It's like some shit some nerd would make up as the background for their super cool original character in some shitty fanfiction. Hell, maybe he'll have some fetish for sex, drugs, and murder because that's super mega cool and edgy! Although I guess I can't really talk so much when I have at least a third of that covered but I still haven't actually murdered anyone so it's fine!]

Thor has completely lost track of the conversation and Ollerus scratches the back of his head and laughs awkwardly.

"What?"

"Don't pay him any mind. He seems to like going on these rants that no one can understand. But still, that's the plan here. Thor, you go find and rescue Fraulein Kreutune before anyone else can get to her so that Kumagawa can turn her into a normal girl."

"And what about that Birdway girl? Isn't she helping you?"

"Yes but...we aren't exactly as close a group as GREMLIN is. She's acting on her own but within our shared interest in stopping Othinus. The last I saw her though, she seemed to be planning to do something rash as far as Kreutune goes so you may want to hurry on that front."

"Geeze. Gotta play double agent while having to contend with enemies on all sides. You really know how to sweeten up a deal for me. But I'd like to ask for something on top of that if you'll excuse my greed."

"I would give out some cliched threat but you are doing quite a bit of work here. What is it you want?"

"I want to fight Kamijou Touma after this is done. If you can promise me that you and your people won't interfere, then I'll agree to do as you ask."

"As long as you don't kill him, I'm fine with it. He's going to be someone that'll play a big part in the effort to take Othinus down so keep that in mind. Oh. You may want to enlist him in helping you rescue Kreutune actually."

"Yeah, think I'll do just that. See you guys around!"

Thor rushes out of the restaurant, leaving Ollerus and Kumagawa as they order their meals. They remain silent until the food arrived.

[...What's with that guy?]

"Him? Thought you would be able to understand Thor's love for battle considering you seem to like fighting strong opponents yourself."

[Not him. Why is that Kamijou guy at the center of so many of these situations? No matter who I meet, they all seem to know him. Even for a main character, the quantity of crazy stuff he's gotten into is ridiculous.]

Ollerus puts down the fork he was using to eat.

"Well, that's just the combination of his right hand and general nature, I'd say."

[I've heard about his right hand but what does his nature have to do with it? Is he a battle crazed idiot too?]

"Heh, no. For him, if there's someone in trouble in front of him, he'll stop at nothing to save them."

[Yeah. Guess that's just like a main character. It irritates me.]

"Why?"

[Even if my intensity as a human has diminished, I still hate the ones that have everything I don't. Main characters always have friends, talent, smarts, luck, looks, everything. I'm just too petty to accept someone like that when I have none of it.]

"I don't think you have that quite right about him."

Kumagawa gives Ollerus a side glace with a frown.

"He does seem to have plenty of friends, sure, but as far as I've looked into him, he's in danger of repeating his grade in high school, he gets little time for sleep and food due to all the situations he throws himself into, he's in the hospital more often than not, and even in his childhood there was a time where he was so persecuted for his lack of luck that he was nearly stabbed by a man that went bankrupt and blamed him for it all. He is somewhat intelligent and surrounded by friends but his luck is absolutely terrible. Honestly, I'd say that he's at least a decent example of what you had once described as a Minus, wouldn't you say?"

[...And that isn't just because of that hand? I heard it negates all kinds of supernatural stuff so wouldn't it do the same with luck too?]

"Maybe. But I'd say his luck was horrible to begin with when he was born with that power fixed to his right hand. Either way, you've got an entirely wrong idea of who Kamijou Touma is."

Kumagawa puts his eyes back on his bowl as he gets lost in his thoughts.

He had considered that maybe Ajimu had given the Main Character of this world some form of Hundred Gauntlets so that she could use him to stop Kumagawa when he went after her. But now that no longer seems to make sense. She never had All Fiction and he doubted anyone else could distort Hundred Gauntlets into anything resembling it. It would require someone with Kumagawa's exact personality to do. Plus, that spork girl had Hundred Gauntlets when they fought in that frozen city. So it would stand to reason that the Main Character and Ajimu have nothing to do with each other. Which would indeed mean that the guy was born with his shitty luck and power without any interference from that vice president. There shouldn't be anything more that could make Kumagawa have a problem with him.

Even so he frowns as he suddenly picks up his wooden bowl and, with a gusto that surprises Ollerus, slurps up all his chow mein in under a second, slapping wood onto wood as he stands.

"What's wrong with you?"

[A guy that was born with that much bad luck becoming a Main Character. I bet he believes himself to be the most unfortunate guy to live. I bet he whines and moans about his luck whenever and wherever possible. I can't accept that. I can't accept someone that actually thinks they're the most unfortunate when I exist. If I see him, I'll screw all the way through that illusion of his.]

With that, he leaves in the same determined manner that Thor had. Ollerus chuckles softly.

"I wonder if he knew about that phrase of Kamijou's? I suppose not but...well it's fine. It's high time he gets over that childish perspective of the world he sees. Though as things are, I can't imagine that it'll be done and over with in the first encounter but as long as it comes before Othinus makes her final move, it'll be fine. It has to be or else I don't know if Kamijou can do it alone if I fail."

Ollerus grips a bit onto his cup before pulling out the money to cover the meals and vanishes from sight a second later.

* * *

Though he had declared all that with such certainty, Kumagawa honestly had no idea of what he was doing. He wanders about the city like a homeless man in search of some aluminum cans to sell for chump change. Though in case it wasn't just like one.

With all that's happening however, he doesn't really have the luxury for going off on side quests. He owes Ollerus that much. In order to combat the parties involved, he needs to raise the value of Skill holders. This isn't referring to the Terminals that Ajimu had set loose upon this world but to natural born Abnormals and Minuses. Well, Enshuu's Skill may not have been given in a natural manner but there's no denying that all she had needed was that push. All the other prerequisites had been met.

He may not like the idea of Abnormals but they're needed to match Minuses. It's a matter of balance. Both sides need the other to complete the coin they exist on. Without good, there can be no evil and vice versa. Plus, she's sure to send those Terminals after him eventually. The insurance would be good. But the problem was how he was going to be able to do it.

He could just go around the city using Bookmaker liberally on the population but that wouldn't net much results. Out of the 2.3 million students, only 40% or so had esper powers. Meaning that the 60% that remained at level 0 were likely just mostly normal people incapable of receiving the attribute of Abnormal or Minus. It's not certain that they're all this way but it provides a decent picture.

If he did just go slamming screws in whoever, it's not certain that they'd gain powers from it. He wasn't even sure of the ones that already had esper powers gaining Skills. Hell, if what he saw from Misaki's memories was anything to go by then it may be possible that the one in charge of this place may have planned for Skill holders and made it so that none of the students here could get one.

But he's not someone who likes to think that far. In all honesty, he just thought it'd be too much of a pain to do and wanted to find an easier way to go about the whole thing. Or else he was just going to drop it.

He gives a sigh before a gasp for air as something hits him in the stomach. The force wasn't great but the unexpectedness of it shocked the air out of him. When he looks down, he sees that a blonde haired little girl with a bag of marshmallows had been the one to wind him.

"Oi! Fremea! I swear to all that is holy, I will pay the dentist at the Hero's Cave extra to make sure he lays out all kinds of torture tools for him to sharpen while you have to watch from the chair with your ass tied down! Drop those damn things!"

[Whoa. Zura-chan, you've become quite the lolicon in my absence. I'm so proud of you, my student!]

Kumagawa hugs tight onto Fremea's squirming little body as Hamazura rounds a corner.

"Kumagawa! What- never mind. Just get her away from those sugary things!"

"Nyahh Nyahh! In the first place, these are my reward for surviving that torture you tricked me into!"

"You aren't supposed to reward yourself! You got yourself in that mess anyway!"

[Now, now. This poor girl has just been through a traumatic experience, right?]

Fremea jumps a bit at being suddenly addressed.

"Y-yeah."

[Then of course she deserves a reward for all that hardship, right?]

Hamazura's turn to be slightly surprised.

"W-well...I was meaning to give her a little something for her troubles but that doesn't mean that she can just run off like that and give herself more cavities for her to get drilled out."

[Is that so? Hey, hey Fremea-chan.]

"Yes? In the first place, I don't even know your name."

Under his breath he remarks that such verbal ticks are a bit annoying but soldiers on.

[It's Kumagawa Misogi. You can just call me Misogi-chan, if you'd like! But if you let me sleep in your room from now on, I'll use my special ability to make it so that you'll never get cavities again. What do you say?]

"Nyahh! That's great, Misogi-chan! Now I can drink as much hot chocolate as I want! Nyahh!"

"No. No. No. No. If I could go for about 20 years of just saying no without eating or sleeping, I would just to press that on you. You were already kicked out for this exact kind of perversion."

"P-perversion!? In the first place, you're a pervert!?"

Kumagawa clicks his tongue as he grips tighter on her.

"Gahhh! He just clicked his tongue at me! In the first place, save me!"

Hamazura already knew exactly the kind of evil he was up against right now. This was someone that was strong enough to spit on the idea of the idea of being a level 5. This was someone weak enough to put that same level 5 in a sailor uniform, grope another's breasts, and otherwise sexually harass anyone regardless of how strong they were.

But even if Hamazura couldn't stand a chance, he had to make a stand against this monster here and now. Just as he had when he saved Takisubo. Just as he had when he saved Mugino. And just as he had when he saved Fremea the first time.

"Hey Kumagawa. Check out that cute girl over there."

[What!? Where!?]

With his attentions elsewhere, Hamazura drives a fist right for Kumagawa's face.

* * *

Kumagawa sits beside Hamazura with a cold can of coffee set on his cheek.

"...Sorry. I honestly thought you were going to dodge."

[Yeah. So did I. Fremea-chan's flailing about threw me off though.]

"I see."

Fremea was now playing with some friends on the park equipment while Takisubo went off to get food for everyone. The two simply sit there and watch Fremea play for a time. Kumagawa plays with his empty can by flicking his index finger against it to tune only he knew.

[Say, Zura-chan.]

"Hm?"

[Do you know someone named Kamijou Touma?]

Hamazura looks over at Kumagawa's melancholic expression and thinks for a minute before answering.

"Hmm. Yes? We know each other but why are you asking?"

[Just heard a bit about him. Wanted to know some more.]

"Oh," Hamazura replies slowly, "Well, we met when I had been acting as the temporary leader for Skill Out."

[Skill Out?]

"Enshuu hadn't told you? Guess that makes sense considering they've been more or less wiped out. It's a group of misfits that couldn't gain esper powers so they fight the ones that abuse their abilities. Or at least that's what most of the factions say. My group at least was definitely for that cause. At least, until our original leader, Komba Ritoku, got assassinated. Anyway, that guy stood up to me when I was going down the wrong path and gave me what I deserved so I could wake up. If he hadn't done that, well I don't know what I would've done."

[…What did he say at that time?]

There was no longer any trace of a smile. All there is is disgust. If Hamazura had been looking at Kumagawa's face then, he definitely would have chosen to forget what was said to him.

"Eh? What he said? Uh, think it was something like, 'I may be a level zero but at least I'm not a minus!' Wait. Was that it or-"

[I see. Yeah, that's exactly how I had imagined that guy to be.]

Hamazura winces at the pure hate he heard oozing out of Kumagawa's mouth as he crushes the can in his right hand, missing when he tries to shoot for a nearby trash can.

"Kumagawa?"

[Say, Zura-chan. Wasn't it because of that Parameter List thing that made those Skill Out guys get denied the chance for powers?]

His sudden change of topic nearly made Hamazura do a spit take.

"W-where did you hear that from? Actually, why are you asking me?"

[You know why it's you. As far as to where, Enshuu-chan told me.]

"Well, ok. But yeah, that's right."

He looks over at his companion, nervously.

[A group of misfits huh. That's perfect actually.]

He gets up to go but Hamazura stops him by grabbing onto his arm.

"Wait a minute! I'm not really liking the weird trail our conversation left. What are you going to do?"

[...It doesn't concern you.]

"Yes it does! How can you say it doesn't when it involves my friends?!"

[Ah, yeah. Don't worry I won't hurt your Skill Out friends. Oh, but I can't promise much when it comes to-]

"I'm talking about you too, idiot!"

Kumagawa flinches at his words but still yanks himself out of Hamazura's grip as he walks off. Hamazura yells but he doesn't listen. He's never been very good at that when he's got a good rage going. Especially when the perfect outlet for letting all that anger out has made himself so apparent.

* * *

The remnants of Skill Out gather in District 19, something of a failure when it came to development. It's a district marked by it's abandoned looking buildings, cracked roads, and people of an unsavory sort wandering about here and there. The Skill Out members were all from various factions each with their own spin on the original goal that Komba Ritoku had wished for but nearly all were of a violent sort.

They all murmur amongst themselves within the abandoned office lobby. Each of them had received a text from various people that they personally trust to come there. It was looking more and more like a trap set up by Anti-Skill but they weren't the sort to shy from a challenge given from authority. That and they were already caught in it, if that was indeed the case.

"When are these assholes going to show themselves? I was hoping to at least break some of their limbs before they can take me but it looks like they may not have expected so many to come."

"I don't know. We all got texts from people we trust the most right? They have power but I doubt they have that much. Would they even go so far if they had that ability?"

[Probably not. The powers that be don't really care that much about our sort.]

Everybody looks to the new member to their waiting party, Kumagawa, who sits on top of a table.

"Fuck are you?"

[Kumagawa Misogi. A fellow misfit that would like to kick at the heads of this vile snake. I have something of a proposal for you.]

A leader of one of the factions walks over.

"Yeah? Well we don't care. What we do care about is how you got that information."

[Well, I'm not sure of how many recognize the name, but Kihara Enshuu was the one who helped me set that up. She had looked all of you up on the database and ran a program to give out a text to each of you with words chosen based on what they usually send you in texts.]

It was mostly the leaders but several others within the crowd wince at the name. The one that had approached narrows his eyes in a sour expression.

"You say you want to kick some heads but the Kihara name is known for being real cozy with those bastards."

[And?]

"And I think we're going to have to say no to that offer."

He swings his right hand at Kumagawa. The instant before it strikes, a screw breaks out from the ground and pierces his chest.

"What the hell?!"

"I knew this was fucked!"

[Now, now. Calm down. This is all a part of the deal I'm offering.]

The screw disappears along with the white hair that had appeared. The boy blinks several times as he comes to terms with his mortality.

"What did you do to me?"

[Those elites have been cheating all of you of your rightful destinies. They knew that they wouldn't be able to get anything out of you when you got here so they abandoned you all for someone they knew to be a sure bet. They passed off what could have been to those elites. I want to give that back to you.]

"Fuck you!"

Despite what had happened, he swings again. However, this wasn't a show in the definition of insanity. The moment Kumagawa's next screw struck, it exploded into a fine black dust and Kumagawa began to cough up something black. The boy looks at the event before him. He, himself, was unharmed and his opponent had just been injured somehow.

[Guh. That's a pretty good one actually. Let's call it, 'Black Magic'.]

"W-what?"

[I have a special ability to grant other people abilities. That one was a freebie. Oh, I guess this one too.]

Another screw impales someone in the room. They've more or less gotten used to the irregularity but seeing someone gored by something so outlandish wears a bit at the nerves. After her hair returned to it's previous color, she gasps.

"What? Why is everything...so clear? It's like I can see every detail in HD or something."

[And there's our first Abnormal, I think. It's such a hard thing to tell sometimes. For that one, 'Clear Eyes.' No, that's stupid. How about, 'Fairy Vision'? Yeah that's a little better.]

Everyone had looked at him with anger and hate. Then fear. Now there's hope. Though, that isn't necessarily a good thing.

[Follow me and you will all gain the powers you wished for. You can give up fearing the ones above you because you'll have the means to bring them all down to our level. We'll teach those bastards about what misfortune really is.]

They all yell as though they've already won some huge battle. They have, after all, found a way to get back at those that sneered and laughed at them. The one that put such a fire in them smiles grimly to himself as he watches them. There was something that Kumagawa had left out of that speech.

By making everyone special, no one is.

* * *

Having found the previously missing Fremea, Hamazura and Takitsubo walk home with the little girl on his back. Or at least they had tried before Fremea had complained about food and had dragged them into a restaurant but that's done now.

He really did mean it when he said that Kumagawa was his friend. They may not have known each other for long but he could tell that he was a good guy. It may have been a particularly sentimental thing but he didn't want to see him fight Kamijou Touma. It wouldn't be good for either of them regardless of who won. He may have confidence in Touma's abilities but Kumagawa was in a bit different category of enemy. He sighs.

"Hamazura."

At some point his track suit wearing girlfriend appeared right in front of him.

"Ah! Takitsubo? What's wrong?"

"Your face is ugly. What's wrong?"

"What?! Wait. Wait. You meant to say that I had a weird look on my face right?"

He looks at her with all the vanity he had in him. She tilts her head and looks up at the sky before she answers.

"Yes."

"...Ignoring that odd pause, I'm just worried about my friends."

"You mean Kumagawa?"

"Yeah. We had something like a fight and I think he's about to do something bad. I don't know wh-"

A stirring from the small creature latched to his back interrupts his thoughts as she cries out while pointing at some people across the intersection from them.

"It's the kid!"

"What was that you child!? says Misaka as Misaka lets out a roar!"

* * *

"Found you," a human-like monster whispers to herself with all the desire of a man lost in a desert finding an oasis as she gazes over at the group of odd men and women.

"...Found you," mutters a monster-like human from a rooftop nearby as he looks at the woman with heavy disinterest.

[Found you,] a third party utters at his unsuspecting friends while being painfully aware of the modern recreation of the OK Corral that he had watched them wander into.

Kumagawa may have quite a bit of hate built up but given the situation, he can't ignore the danger that they'll face in just a few moments. He's not worried about it though. He's already brought a substantial answer for when some smartass tries asking, 'You and what army?'

Though, it's more likely that he would be the one to say it.

* * *

 **Sorry everyone. It's been a little bit, I know. Between work and some other stuff, well, to say the least it's been hectic. Updates will more than likely be as often as this one but hopefully I'll be able to put another one out sooner. We'll see. Anyhow, I figured that if Kumagawa was to have a science side expert then he may as well have a magic side one as well. Ollerus and an injured Fiamma had met Kumagawa when he first entered the world in Hong Kong after Fiamma had the snot beat out of him by Aleister. Details on that to come later and stuff. Needed to build up a proper situation where Kumagawa would feasibly go after Touma by introducing the latter to the former as such a contradiction to what he's known that he'll have no choice but to hate him with a passion. Also to start building up the Skill holder army that'll be backing Kumagawa at later points in the story. The next segment will have a hopefully more competent Kakine fighting everyone. I really hate how they made someone with a power as strong as his get his ass kicked so hard. As far as Kamachi has shown, Kakine's Dark Matter doesn't really have limits to it other than the user. So hopefully I can make that portion more entertaining as Kumagawa, Accelerator, and friends fight off against him.**


	10. Chapter 10

Of Beetles And Beatles  
Dark_Matter_Deviance

* * *

The number 1 esper in Academy City: Accelerator, the man that had once called himself the End of the Century Emperor: Hamazura Shiage, and their loved ones have a chance meeting at an intersection. There can't be any mistaking this encounter for good fortune with Kakine Teitoku and Fraulein Kreuteune in the shadows as they wait for the right time to eviscerate their prey for their own reasons. Of which felt to Kumagawa Misogi like it was going to happen any second now.

This wasn't the most volatile situation he had ever encountered. Wouldn't be the last as long as he had breath in him. But still, he can't quite remember any time more full of bloodlust off the top of his head. And all of it not for him for once as well. Now THAT was something of a first for him.

Another while not a first exactly as much as it was just simply new, being that he didn't get the usual impulse to make things worse for everyone in general, not to exclude himself. Rather, he was frozen in place as he tries to think of the best way to handle this without everyone getting brutally massacred. Unfortunately, all the options that he can imagine with him being thrown into the mix led to messy ends for all involved.

It was...rather difficult for him to say the least.

"What should we do, boss?"

The voice was crystal clear but he knew from who it was that nobody other himself and the other Skill Out members could hear it. That was Somebody Else's Problem, the Skill of the Minus named Matoi Tsunetsuki. At first he had bugged her incessantly over her name, asking if she was particularly good at decoding stuff or if he could be her Zetsubou-sensei. But unfortunately she had none of the qualities that her hyper-stalking namesake had. Which resulted in Kumagawa whipping his head about dramatically before proclaiming that he was in despair over the matter.

Her Skill, like her name, was also close to being reminiscent of someone else but the stores were all out of cigars. Kuudou Hinokage's Abnormality, Unknown Hero, was a Skill that caused people to subconsciously block his existence from their minds due to his intimidating presence that overwhelmed their minds.

If Kuudou's Skill came from a blanketed block, Matoi's came from a selective block. She could force some to have no choice but to acknowledge her existence while the rest of the world be completely unaware of her. Which meant that no matter where they were, whomever she selects would be able to hear her voice from anywhere on the planet as though she were right there beside them. No matter how hard they may try, the ones she chose would never be able to shake her from their thoughts and all of their senses. At least she lived that much up to her name.

[Weeeell, I guess this is about to be a bloodbath with or without me so it may as well be with me! Oh. Don't jump in with me though. Wait until that half-painted, life-sized, living figma jumps in. Be sure to tell the others. We need this surprise party to have a little bit of coordination after all!]

After a brief affirmation from Matoi, he walks right over to his friends. He didn't dare look over in the direction of the murderous intent, it would defeat the purpose if he acted so provocatively, but he could sense that his arrival was a surprise to all of the parties involved here.

"Nyaah! Hamazura, in the first place a wild pervert has appeared!"

"Hey! It's Kumagawa! shouts Misaka as Misaka points out her friend amicably!"

Everyone turns to look over at him. Accelerator with silent rage and Hamazura with nervous hesitation.

[Geeze, is it really only little girls in this city that have these silly verbal ticks? Ah but Enshuu-chan doesn't really have that I guess. Must make the two of you oddballs then.]

"The last person anyone needs to hear that from is you!"

[Oh? So you drop it when you're angry enough huh? Very interesting.]

While Fremea fumes and Last Order laughs, Accelerator steps forward.

"Oi. What the fuck do you want you clown? I'd be halfway tempted to kill you if not for the shitty brats around us."

[Oh. Uh well…]

As he scratches his head in honest hesitation over the situation, he realizes that he hadn't really thought so far ahead. Despite however he may feel about his level of intelligence, Kumagawa is magnificent at improvisation. Which is why, when the other two hadn't swooped in, he felt very out of sorts. Can't exactly put on a performance without props. So he decides to improvise his improvisation.

[Yeah. I give up. It's going to take way too much effort to explain so I'll just beat those other two to the punch.]

"The hell are- guh!"

Accelerator gazes down at the screw in his chest. As he looks up, he sees that everyone else other than Kumagawa had been impaled with far too many screws to count. He would get angry but finds that the energy for the act is impossible.

Kumagawa swoops the currently unconscious albino and vanishes as though he had never been there.

Several minutes pass by as the previously living party lays on the ground and soaks in their mingled blood. The area has since been virtually emptied of the people that had been meandering about there.

Well, it was entirely devoid of regular human beings at any rate.

An eerily white boy emerges from an alleyway as he walks toward the corpses.

"I thought you people had said that guy was dead? Not like she can really answer I suppose but still...just how incompetent are the people in charge? Doesn't matter either way. All that changes is the direction and distance to the one I want to kill. It's a shame that I can't use these ones as bait though."

He kicks the torso of the brown-haired girl on the floor, rolling her onto her side. Her face was full of the confusion she experienced in her final moments but otherwise her eyes, once irate with life, have become dulled by death's embrace. As he moves the black voids in his face at the others around him, he saw that the same story could be told for each of them.

"Kumagawa Misogi. They told me he had abilities that were beyond the comprehension of the curriculum but I never thought it'd go to this extent. It still doesn't matter. At this point, I've reached the point where not even the #1 can ever kill me. That other one is no more than a background character, even if he did beat Accelerator."

He cranes his head back towards a nearby, empty alleyway.

"...That creature is their problem. Not mine. Now, I think I'll make some more preparations now that I've been so graciously been given the time to do so."

With that, he leaps over buildings and out of sight, leaving the corpses where they were.

Though, it isn't really accurate to be calling them corpses at this point.

"GAAAAAAAA- oh. I-I'm alive? Wait, Takitsubou! Fremea!"

Hamazura whips his head toward his loved ones to find that they were both in a similar state of disbelief.

"I'm fine too. In case anyone was wondering."

He turns to the woman that was with Accelerator and Last Order, Yoshikawa Kikyou.

"Oh! A-are-"

"It was just a joke, relax. Are you alright, Last Order?"

She had been sitting upright with a blank stare on her face but on being addressed, life returns to her.

"Ah! W-what just happened? asks Misaka as Misaka nervously pats herself down."

"Good question," she turns now to Hamazura, "I remember being impaled with...it's a bit ridiculous to say but with a giant screw. I should have died."

Hamazura cracks a wry smile.

"I can guess but, no it's fact at this point that Kumagawa had used whatever power he has to bring us back from being dead. He probably did it to help us. Yeah. Definitely."

To Yoshikawa it sounded less like he was trying to explain that guy's actions as much as he was trying to rationalize the motives of the one that had resurrected them to himself. But she didn't feel like it was an appropriate time to point this out.

"Leaving why he had done it, just how did this Kumagawa manage to do that? Such an ability is well beyond what an esper can do."

"It's not really something I understand myself. All I know is he can somehow make things into nothing. At least, that's how he described it. I had watched Accelerator murder him too many times to count but somehow he just never really died."

"Oh? Well, can't say I can really get it either but he must have done that to protect us from whoever got us with those screws right?"

"That...would have been him too."

"Huh? Ah, we're not going to get anywhere like this. Let's get out of here. Somehow, I doubt that was the end of things."

"Yeah. Takitsubou, take Fremea and the others to the apartment. They'll be safer there."

Takitsubou upon being asked, slightly furrows her brows.

"And you? You aren't thinking of chasing them down are you?"

"I need to. I have no idea of what Kumagawa is thinking but-"

"Hamazura. You can't do anything in that kind of a fight by yourself."

"I know that but-"

"No. We're all going back. We need to think of something as a group."

Hamazura almost balks at the indirect pun but realizes that Takitsubou isn't really capable of making jokes, especially in a situation like this.

"...Was that not funny? I just wanted to lighten the mood a bit."

His face twists into many expressions before settling on exhaustion.

"Fine. Fine. Let's all go back and try to figure out what the hell is going on before jumping right into the situation. Do you have a place to go miss…?"

Yoshikawa almost misses this indirect question.

"It's Yoshikawa Kikyou. Yoshikawa is fine. Though, given that we've all experienced death together, you can call me whatever. I do have a place but this may be easier if we're all together on this. I hope you don't mind but I'm going to bring a friend of mine in on this. She'll be a great help here."

"What can this person do? Who is she?"

"Yomikawa Aiho. She's a member of Anti-Skill."

* * *

Kumagawa had lept from rooftop to rooftop for over an hour before he decided that he had lost Kakine.

Inside the warehouse, he places Accelerator on top of a stack of pallets and collapses right then and there onto the floor, gasping for air.

[Even if...I can nullify the distance, I'm still...carrying another person on my shoulder. I...really am weak, huh?]

Accelerator can only offer a meek groan in reply.

[Crap. Forgot about Bookmaker.]

He stumbles to his feet and half-drags his worn out body over to the albino boy. As soon as the screw comes out, Kumagawa hits the floor. Though this wasn't from exhaustion this time.

[A-accel-kun. When you're this close, you kinda make my heart flutter a bit.]

Given that Accelerator had reached in through Kumagawa's stomach and forced his hand through the majority of his internal organs to grip onto his heart with an iron claw, this comment may have been too on the nose for it to have been funny. Accelerator wasn't laughing at least but he has as much humor in him as a funeral, especially now.

"...I'm going to ask this once so no bullshit, why did you kill them all?"

[...You mean why I killed LO-Aah!]

There was no gentleness in the way his literal heartstrings had been pulled.

[They didn't really die tho-]

This time, the scream became something otherworldly. He didn't bother to mention as much, anger was barring his sadism for relishing the pain of others, but he was manipulating the nerves in Kumagawa's body to bring out the most from him. However, the victim of post-medieval torture still smiled.

[Can't complain if it's for free but are you not going to charge me for this level of play?]

Accelerator couldn't help but feel powerless here. It wasn't like the damage simply couldn't reach his opponent or that he didn't feel it at all but rather no matter what he did and to whatever extent, he couldn't break Kumagawa with pain, even with his abilities as the strongest level 5.

"...Just tell me why."

He spat out those words as though he were the one getting his heart torn out.

[It was...necessary so that they could all live. Same as last time. If I hadn't gored them all like that, then the other two would have ganked all of you. I'm sure you could handle them on your own but you're not as much of a solo player anymore are you? One of them would've gotten through and it would be all over for them. Reverse April Fiction should have kicked in a while after we left. They'll be alive by now and able to go run on home before curfew kicks in. Don't want anyone to get grounded here.]

Accelerator thought on this before removing his arm from Kumagawa, All Fiction removing the evidence of the earlier scene. They both sit on the floor across from one another.

"...Reverse April Fiction. You told me about those powers and the stupid nicknames you give them but what the hell is that even supposed to be?"

[April Fiction unmakes an existence for three minutes, the reverse only has the effect kick in after three minutes. But we REAAAAALLY don't have time here. Because I also kinda doubt that the act I pulled will last long, if at all.]

"Who is it?"

[It's that Kakine guy. The one that can use Dark Matter like it's cosmic playdough. Except now he IS the playdough. Is that irony? I feel like that's irony.]

"...What does he want? A fight with me?"

[Yeah? Maybe? I don't know that much. I just saw him standing across the street as he stared you down with some rather lustful eyes. Gotta say, I was spot on when I knew that the sailor uniform would look good on-]

"Cut the bullshit, Kumagawa!"

A fist slamming onto the ground interrupts. Accelerator had turned his choker off since he pulled his arm out so the effect wasn't anywhere near as powerful but for someone like Kumagawa to see someone so weak that they can't live without a collar on their neck lash out like that, it gave him pause.

"...You saved the brat's life. That may not be a certainty but even so, I appreciate it. Honestly. But when you do so by impaling all of those guys, and myself, without a word and then just joke about it like it's some silly fucking mistake is plain disrespect. I know that I have no business talking about something like that but I can't stand that goddamn smirk anymore."

Kumagawa was taken aback by this and lowered his head. He scratched at his scalp for a very long time before he met Accelerator's eyes again. No longer was he wearing his never ending smile.

"...This may make you angrier but please bear with me. This attitude I have isn't really something natural for me. At least, I think I wasn't always this way. I want to believe that. I...honestly do. It's a lot like something of a bad habit. Like chewing on fingernails past childhood except for me it'd be closer to going beyond simple chewing and using knives or some other random sharp object to carve away what little nail is left until my fingertips are mere nubs. This persona of mine loves to press all the wrong buttons. I'm...trying though. I want to change that loser side of me so I can finally stop being a loser. It may not seem like because...I'm not doing much of a good job of it. I've never been good at anything really."

He averts his eyes from Accelerator's as he realizes how flimsy his reasons were.

"...Actually I don't have much of a followup for that. Or any for that matter. I'm not trying to guilt trip you or throw a pity parade or whatever. I just...don't know….sorry."

Their silence resumes in full force, Kumagawa's head lowered once more. In return to the shame and guilt that the one across from him felt, Accelerator could only feel amazed and bewildered.

At first, he thought he would get angry. He thought that all he'd get was some stupid joke at the end of it to mock him for wasting his time. He was fully prepared to leave Kumagawa here, bloodied and torn even if that would be a futile measure, if he had done so.

Instead of anger, Accelerator finds not just the not-so-odd bit of surprise but also has something far odder than he's ever had the experience of dealing with. Empathy.

The situations, problems, and methods are obviously different but the main theme of their goals was markedly similar to each other. Accelerator in his being a villain. Kumagawa in his being a loser. If anyone else had taken this at face value, they may have scoffed at Kumagawa. How would being someone that has so vast an inferiority complex even equate to a boy that has killed more people with his own two hands than any other in history? Even Accelerator felt that way to an extent himself.

However, the sincere anguish when he spoke of being a loser is what convinced Accelerator. Anguish that Accelerator felt whenever the memory of those girls came up. The authenticity of Kumagawa's words were true, he was sure about that much.

What he couldn't figure out was what had happened to make him feel that way? Just what had he lost and by how much? Such things aren't so easily asked.

Especially from those that understand the sentiments of not wanting to be asked.

"...As long as you don't keep acting like a jackass whenever something involves the two of us then I won't give much of a damn about it. So stop looking like I shot your dog."

Kumagawa meets Accelerator's gaze again, blinking in surprise.

"...I'll probably still slip up you know? Definitely will whenever we run into the playdough boy."

"I don't give a shit about anyone else unless they exist on my contacts list so go fucking crazy on that 2nd rate reject. I know I will at the very least."

Something with mild relation to a smile shakily formed on his face at this.

It seemed incredibly bizarre to Accelerator. Kumagawa's typical grin was one that others could only say as being lying or evil. This one however was, albeit rather fragile in how careful it was to reveal itself, far truer to what a smile ought to be than anything Accelerator had seen from him. All he could do on seeing it was laugh.

"What? I thought what you said earlier about setting your heart a flutter was just some shitty joke but maybe you really do have the hots for me. Do you really swing that way, you fucking fetishistic freak?"

[Is that an invitation?]

In less than an instant, Kumagawa had gone from shyly peeking his face past the mask he wears to right back into perfect form.

"Haaah, whatever. Let's move past that melodramatic shit and get to business."

[I haven't heard a no. Does that mean I have a shot?]

"Fuck no."

[Not even a date?]

"What the fuck did we just get done talking about?"

[...Your phone number?]

"...Haggling now? Whatever. If you fucking call me for anything other than an emergency, I'll block you."

[Ehhh?! The strongest esper's threat is being blocked from your phone?! Ah. Excuse my verbal diarrhea. Heheheheh.]

After they had managed to get each others numbers, they move their conversation back to what brought them there to begin with.

"You mentioned before that there was two. Kakine is one, who the hell is the other?"

[Somebody by the name of Fraulein Kreuteune. She's got the same doesn't-die-when-they-are-killed constitution that I have. Except her version is a lot more literal than my abstractions. She wants to eat LO-chan's brains.]

"I not laughing asshole."

Kumagawa clears his throat.

"Well, I really wasn't kidding. From the calculations that one of my guys did, if she eats LO-chan's brain then she will evolve into some new form. Must be one hell of a rare candy. Dammit. Slipped out. Anyway, she's the least of our problems for the moment since she's of a very single-minded sort."

"She won't go after the brat anymore because she was functionally dead before you fucked with the laws of causation."

[Causawhatnow? Never mind that crap, but yes. Though it may not last long. That woman might somehow sense her returning to life or will meet up somehow. Her difficulty rating is pretty damn high but, like I said, we probably don't have to worry as much about her as we do that Kakine guy.]

Accelerator raises an eyebrow.

"Why's that? I pulverized him before. Best he could do was burn my shirt last time."

[Well thing about that is he is ALSO in that doesn't-die-when-they-are-killed category now. More or less. His leftover organs were apparently put in the fridge next to the previous night's dinner after you turned him into ground beef. Since then he has regained sentience and can now replace his organs with Dark Matter. Which is part of the reason why I brought you with me, so I can figure out what to do about him. The other part being to have your sunny disposition to keep me company!]

"What are you babbling about? Can't you just use All Fiction or that combo you fucked me up with the last time we fought?"

[He's made up of Dark Matter currently. He's basically synonymizing himself with what Dark Matter is. So if I were to use All Fiction, wouldn't the possibility of making the concept of Dark Matter into nothing as well as him, thus screwing with the laws of reality, be really high? Even if I were to use it again to bring back the concept of Dark Matter, it may also be possible that I would bring him back with it. Hell, Bookmaker is probably just as bad to use. If not, by definition, infinitely worse. I have no idea of what making it into nothing would mean to the rest of reality but wouldn't it be bad?]

"It might. I have the basic calculations for the vectors concerning it but as far as how it relates to the rest of the universe, I haven't a clue. But really, I can't tell if you're stupidly smart or smartly stupid."

[Eh?]

"I figured you would just attack him regardless of whatever was going on. Hell, I could see you unmaking the existence of color if you thought it would get you a win."

[...It's kinda scary how accurate that last statement just was. But yeah, I used to be the sort to screw first and ask questions later but that was mostly in cases where I had at least a vague understanding of what was going on and how far I could go. This sciencey stuff is too much of a bother for me to seriously think about so I was hoping that you'd do the thinking for me!]

"Fucking lazy. Anyway, if he's just after me then I guess we'll just give him what he wants. What about you?"

[Think I'll go after Kraut-chan. She'll be a slightly easier target and she's the most likely to go after LO-chan and the others. There's some other reasons but still as long as we both preoccupy our targets, they shouldn't do anything to them. Well, at least that'll be true for the zombie woman but Kakine has those weird bugs that he can summon-]

"He can do that now?"

[Apparently. I only caught a brief look at them but they all look like beetles. Does he have some kind of fetish for bugs? Ever talk about cute maid bugs or something? Cause that might actually be sorta cute.]

"...Can you handle that?"

[All of them? Probably not. Some will slip through and they might get to LO-chan. But that's what my guys are for.]

"You mentioned that before but who the hell was dumb enough to be recruited by you?"

[Just some Skill Out guys that I gave powers to using Bookmaker to induce a high enough level of stress to let them gain Skills.]

"What? That doesn't even make sense. If Bookmaker could do that, then why didn't it give me a Skill or whatever?"

Kumagawa had been in the process of standing up but stopped halfway on hearing his question and stood up fully before answering.

[Huh. That's a good question actually. Maybe due to how high your calculation ability is, you were already recognized as having a Skill. Or maybe having a level 5 esper power does. I don't really know right now but we don't have time to dwell on it. I'll join back up with you in the event that you haven't beaten the pretty boy with entomophilia after I've gotten Kraut-chan. Oh. The best advice I could give you right now is to not take him seriously. If you do, you might just lose to him.]

"You really think that shit could beat me?"

[Physically, maybe not. But your emotions are pretty easy to attack after all. If you doubt that, then just think back on how you were after I had shown that beat up illusion of LO-chan to you. That should help keep that kind of arrogance in check.]

He smiled in an aggressively smug manner at his own words.

Normally, most people would be filled with an inconsolable rage and would likely attack Kumagawa with everything they had.

But all that Accelerator did was throw a small rock next to him at his face. Granted this was without the aid of his vector manipulation but taking his superior calculation abilities, he was able to strike squarely on the bridge of his nose. As Kumagawa writhes in mock pain, Accelerator uses the pallets behind him to stand.

[Owowowow! Wha-]

"Didn't you just say that you were trying to stop being such a jackass? If I'm too serious then I'd say you play way too fucking much."

Kumagawa laughs a little.

[Well that's not entirely true. It's also not entirely untrue. I can easily go from cracking a joke or two to strangling someone for laughing at the joke. I might just be bipolar. Or not. I'm not the rapist.]

"...You mean therapist."

A look of complete and utter shock flashes over Kumagawa's frivolous face.

[What?! That's how it's pronounced! Jeez I feel sorry for all those old guys that the schools kept trying to send me to. I was under the honest impression that they were trying to do something pretty devious to me for being the class clown. Oh, suppose I should apologize to that Freud guy for drawing so many warning signs around his pictures in all the school textbooks that I had seen him in.]

"You should be apologizing to the school but for a guy that kept insisting on not wasting time, you sure waste a lot of fucking time."

[Eh, yeah. I guess. I just haven't really been able to talk to someone like this for a little bit. At any rate, thanks for that light chat! It was fun but we've both got some people to meet. Try not to do anything I wouldn't do!]

With that, he was gone. Accelerator remains where he had been leaning, ruminating on what had just transpired.

"He's such a fucking weirdo. Whatever. Guess I'll just go and smash that shitty second rater in the face again."

After he mutters this, he picks up the cane that Kumagawa had left against a crate and makes his way to the battlefield.

* * *

A couple of hours after this exchange and in another place with a tension so separated from earlier that it may as well have been in a different tier altogether, Hamazura continues his long running cold sweat.

It had been fine at first. They had all arrived at the apartment where the rest of ITEM had been waiting on Hamazura to come back with Fremea. They were a bit surprised at the addition of Last Order and Yoshikawa but that much hadn't taken much to convince the others to let them stay. But what had the entire living room in such a state of hostility was the introduction of the third member of the new group. Yomikawa Aiho.

It may not have been as bad if she had just not shown up in full Anti-Skill gear but Hamazura realizes that that is just wishful thinking on his part. Even if they had stopped working for the city's dark side, just by mentioning those law enforcers would have been enough to set off the girls of the former ITEM. It was the same situation for the other side as well.

"So this is where the infamous group that kept an eye on the Board of Directors has been calling home huh? Though it's good to see that you all seem to have calmed down somewhat from those days, I have half a mind to bring you in for the embers of that life you led that seem to be smoldering in your eyes. But I'll be lenient enough to see to it that your schools give you all a month's worth of detention."

Mugino Shizuri and Kinuhata Saiai ignore that source of their hostility in favor of the other target.

"Saaaay Haaamazuraaa, care to explain why there's a cop in full riot gear in our apartment with no warrant to show for it? Why does it seem like those two over there know her? You wouldn't really be so stupid as to bring Anti-Skill here would you?"

"I don't know about that. Hamazura is super stupid. He did bring a friend of that other super idiot after all."

Actually, he reasons, if it was just that crazed enforcer of justice, it may not have been as bad as it is. Well let's not downplay this, it'd still be on the level of a bloodbath but not even a minute after Yomikawa came in, Saiai had let in one that brought it close to being a massacre.

"Kumagawa really is an idiot if he hadn't at least told the people that he sexually harassed that one of his people was coming. Man, why did it have to be a guy like him? Why was it that it was him that gave me these powers? I'd say I had rotten luck but he might curb stomp me for that. So I'll just apologize on his behalf as one of his Abnormals."

Berta Steiber bowed her head slightly at this apology. She had explained with her hoarse voice that she was one of the Skill Out members under Kumagawa's control which, of course, had just exacerbated matters further. She was dressed in a pair of loose sweat pants and a thin hoodie. Attached to her belt was a folding knife with a serrated edge toward the hilt. But she hadn't pulled it out even in the face of all the hate being directed at her.

She hadn't done or said anything that could have earned such treatment but it comes with the attribute of knowing Kumagawa, unfortunately. Thankfully, much to Hamazura's relief, the others had calmed down a bit at her behavior. She may be on the side of the man that had molested all of them but Berta had nothing to do with that. Her politeness also helped immensely in smoothing things over.

"Well?"

Mugino's head whips her head over at Hamazura, forcing him to immediately tense up again.

"Ah, I'm not really sure of what's going on exactly but-"

"I can explain."

Berta raises her hand apathetically.

"From what Matoi told me, there's some kind of monster woman hunting down the little girl over there-"

"Who're you calling little?! screams Misaka as-"

Steamrolling right over her grievances, Berta continues without mercy.

"-so she can eat the brain of that girl and evolve or something. Don't ask me what the hell that means. There's also the newly revived number 2 coming after everyone else in this room. From what I've been told, he also has been given the objective to take out that other monster but since he's just doing whatever he wants, I wouldn't count on him doing anything. It's still something to keep in mind though."

"What kind of power does this super monster have anyway?"

"All that's been relayed to me is that she is hard to kill so take that that as you will."

They all fall deep into thought until Yomikawa speaks up.

"Can I take that as to mean that the rest of Anti-Skill won't respond to reports of violence from here?"

"Since the orders come from on high, probably not."

"Hm, guess that means I might catch some heat for this one."

At her sigh, Hamazura hurriedly apologizes but she stops him midway.

"Hey now. It's my job to protect kids like you from situations like these. Besides, the most I'll get is an ass chewing or two. I'm plenty used to those so don't worry. Anyway, what do you all plan on doing here? We can go back to my office. Higher ups might not like that but since I'm in charge, the others will just be able to blame it on me later and we can hole up there."

Berta shakes her head.

"Not an option. Both our enemies are on the move. The woman probably just senses that Last Order came back but Kakine is definitely aware of the previous deception by now. We try to leave and we'll get ambushed. It's much safer for us all to barricade ourselves inside here."

"I guess that's super fine for most of us here but what about the super useless ones here?"

"I'd say we have time to have them make an exit but the woman is still hunting Last Order. We'd have to divvy up the forces here to protect that group going with her. I'm confident enough with staying or going by myself but Kakine is sure to be watching that monster's movements to see where her prey is going. Odds are, Last Order will be the primary target in this."

"So there's no use running? Suits me perfectly but I can't really promise the safety of everyone else here. Oh well. That suits me too. Hamaaaazuraaaa."

"Yeah?"

"You, Kinuhata, and that idiot's friend handle the protection of the invalids while I and the Anti-Skill woman go on the offense. Have any problems with that?"

Yomikawa sighs as she shrugs her shoulders.

"I do. I can't accept a situation where I have to let children fight like this but I don't really have a choice here. Just know that I'll probably butt in if you go too far."

"Fine. Don't get in my way when you do unless you feel like being made into Swiss cheese. Associate of the idiot. What can you do?"

"Goddamn it. I'll never rid myself of his reputation. Whatever. I can lock or unlock anything I touch."

Mugino raises an eyebrow.

"What? That sounds stupid. Why'd you even bother coming along with that?"

"I realize how it sounds but honestly, I could beat even the likes of Kumagawa and Accelerator with this power. Well, that is if I can get close enough. My power works on literally anything I touch. Containers, electronics, even people. If I were to use my ability on you, you'd never be able to move. I can also use it on this whole room but if a part of it is out of my sight, it won't work. My spatial awareness isn't great but everything else in this room would become difficult to break into."

Saiai frowns as she adds her 2.24 yen to the conversation.

"That's better but I doubt they'll be super polite enough to not go into a locked room."

"Doesn't matter how hard they knock or if they even blow the walls apart, once the whole room is under my lock it makes it so even the matter that makes up the walls, floor, and ceiling get stuck in place. Kakine might be able to work around that but the monster can't as far as I'm aware. It'll buy us some time at least."

"How long do we have?"

"Any time now actua-"

Her sentence was left unfinished as everyone's attentions go immediately for the loud sound at the window. A large, white beetle had just latched itself to the window of the building and began to bash it's head against the glass. From all around them, the sounds of giant thuds could be heard.

"That's some good timing. Everyone that can't fight, hide behind the kitchen counter. I don't know long it'll take for that thing to work around my power but it won't last. If they make it in, run away and don't look back.

As soon as the others had hid behind cover, Mugino turns to Berta with a raised eyebrow.

"I thought that you said running wasn't an option."

"It wasn't when we didn't know where the enemy was. If you two are able to hold them off for long enough to let us get away, it could work."

"Heh, we'll it won't be much of a problem if they surround us. At least then I won't have to worry about where I'm aiming."

Yomikawa gives the psychopathic cyborg a wry smile.

"Oi. I'll still be here you know."

"Which is why I had already warned you. It's not my fault if you happen to be too incompetent to dodge my Meltdowner. Aren't you supposed to be trained to deal for that sort of thing?"

"Our training involved some pretty outlandish scenarios but unfortunately dodging lasers while fighting off giant beetles made from Dark Matter wasn't included in it. But still, can they really even break in? If it's like you said, then it should be physically impossible for anything to get in here with everything down to the atom being locked in place. Frankly if it wasn't for these things banging around, I wouldn't have believed that kind of power at your level could exist in the curriculum."

"It doesn't but that can be something to talk about later. Kakine has revived himself from near death and created these things with his Dark Matter so it must operate on laws that we are unaware of. It wouldn't be surprising if he managed to do something about it himself. Ah. We may be in luck on that front."

The other two look on at Berta gazing off to the distance all of a sudden with confusion.

"Accelerator has just gone off to fight Kakine. Even if he has complete control of those bugs and they aren't just automatic, his awareness ought to be dulled if he has to concentrate on fighting the number 1. Also, you may not like this part, Kumagawa is on his way here to take care of that monster woman."

"That pervert is coming here? Great. More motivation to finish this quickly."

Yomikawa nudges Mugino with her elbow.

"Oh? What's this? Someone that the great Meltdowner can't deal with? I figure that you'd just fire on anyone that annoys you but since this guy is still alive, could it be love I smell?"

To her surprise, Mugino only gives her an exhausted look without moving her head.

"I did. 67 times. Trust me. If there was any way to kill him, I'd jump at the chance. But since even that overachieving albino can't do it either, I've lost hope in that."

"...What the hell is that guy?"

As the three people trusted with the offense in this final stand chat idly, Hamazura grimaces from his position.

"Can they really not feel the mood here? We all might die here and they're just acting like they're at some cafe somewhere enjoying the sun while they eat snacks and drink tea. I expect as much out of Mugino but the others I hoped more from. I'm not the only one that feels that way right?"

He turns back to see if he has any comrades that he can share his concerns with but finds none.

Yoshikawa had seemed to have pillaged the cabinets around them to create a pile of snacks for Last Order, Fremea, and herself to pick at while they play card games. Takitsubou, meanwhile, has chosen this moment to take a nap.

"What!? Seriously!? We're getting attacked and you lot are just going to play old maid!? Fremea didn't we JUST take you to the dentist because you had eaten too many damn sweets!?"

"In the first place, be quiet Hamazura! You'll ruin my focus."

"Hehe! Can you really figure out which one is the right card with this poker face of mine? asks Misaka as Misaka secretly hopes you pick the third card from the end."

"Hamazura. Be quiet when others are sleeping."

At the others utter lack of awareness, he turns to Yoshikawa.

"Well, I'd say it's fine isn't it? If it helps get our minds off the situation, it should be a good thing. After all, we have you and that girl in the sweater to count on for our safety if those other guys fail."

"She's super right Hamazura. Let's just keep an eye on the situation over there and leave them to themselves."

Hamazura releases a pent out sigh of defeat.

"Yeah, yeah. Fine. Oh, where's Umidori?"

"Her? Who knows. She always goes super wandering off by herself. I sent her a message to not bother coming back for awhile since you super know about her other health issues too."

"Hmm? What other issues? We already got the cavities taken care of."

"Yeah. That's the point. It was a lie but since she may not be super aware of anything else, she's afraid you've super seen something that she hasn't. That catgirl will keep away in the fear that we'll just gum up the ports to her arms again and super haul her off somewhere."

"You...really like messing with her don't you?"

"Who doesn't? There's something super satisfying about belittling someone that treats themselves as serious as she does."

Saiai smiles sadistically as Hamazura comes to a realization.

"Kumagawa may be onto something with little girls having verbal ticks."

"What? Is that something you two talked about at your super secret lolicon meeting?"

He was about to refute that statement when the front door came flying over their heads. Hamazura peeks over in the direction of the entrance and freezes right there and then.

"Found you."

It wasn't human. Despite looking in every way to a female homo sapien, it simply wasn't possible to see that face and believe it as belonging to the same species as the other occupants. Her smile splits her face in half as she dashes through and nearly reaches the kitchen when a beam of green light hits her right in her grinning maw. Voices scream from where the beam was fired.

"I thought you said she couldn't get in!"

"I said as far as I know!"

But there was no more time for arguments in the presence of a monster like that. Fraulein Kreutune had only bent her back at an odd angle when she was hit. As she rose back up, they saw that her face, so full of hunger, hadn't even been scratched.

Saiai is the first to react as she grabs the fallen door and smashes the monster's body with little effect. She doesn't stop there however. She lets go of the door and kicks out Kreutune's legs as she lands a punch square in the jaw, sending the monster careening into the wall. Before it can get up, Berta runs up and plants her knife right into her head as she straddles her back.

"Run! All of you!"

Hamazura hesitates for a moment but rushes everyone out the front.

Below Berta the monster mumbles to itself as it's wide, bug eyes follow every movement the little brunette makes when she flees, licking her lips as her prey leaves her sight. Although, for a split second, her ravenous eyes drift in another direction altogether.

* * *

Hamazura and the others had escaped the building unmolested. Neither the beetles nor the woman had followed them. In fact, as they left they saw the giant bugs still pounding away at the outer walls. They were afraid when it appeared that the one by the window had finally broke the window but their fears, as well as the beetle, were blown away by the multitude of green blasts from within.

They had been running for some time in search of a good place to hide but with no one pursuing, it made any place they saw look suspect. For now, they catch their breath in a wide alleyway.

"Nyah. Hamazura, how far do we have to go?"

He gives no reply, only a strained look as an answer.

"Is...is this my fault? nervously asks Misaka as she starts to feel guilty..."

Yoshikawa ruffles her hair roughly.

"It's not your fault at all. You are quite the troublemaker but you didn't do anything to make this situation what it is. So stop worrying about it."

She smiles a bit but it's obvious that she's forcing it. Hamazura can only grimace at the sight, being unable to do anything else to fix the problems that were being fired point blank at them.

"Hamazura, lets talk out from where the others can super hear."

Being torn from his self-pitying introspection, he follows Saiai and Takitsubou out behind a large dumpster.

"You're super not going to like what we've been thinking about but...we should ditch those other two and take Fremea out of here."

"What!?"

"Look, we don't know them. It's the other girl that's being chased after. We'll be super safe as long as we distance ourselves from her."

"We can't just-"

The previously silent Takitsubou speaks.

"What's more important? Fremea or that Last Order girl? You can't save everyone, Hamazura. You don't have the power to. We can only save the ones we care about."

"...She's not just some random girl. That's Fremea's friend we're talking about. How do you think she'll feel when she learns that we intend to abandon her friend to that monster?"

The two girls have nothing to say to that.

"I know how this is. I say all that but I have no way of making that a reality. But I'm sure Kumagawa didn't take her with him because he was sure that I could keep her safe so-"

"Geeze, quit the super guilt trip already. We already get your point. Also, I'm super sure that pervert just forgot to grab her."

"...That's not entirely impossible."

"At any rate, what can we do now? It's only a matter of time before those beetles find us."

"The woman too."

"Yeah, I know. We could try what Yomikawa said but I feel like that would just make more needless deaths. Any hideout would be just as bad since the beetles would just follow the woman over to us, that's not good either. The only thing I feel we can do is wait for Accelerator to take care of Kakine and then just have everyone gang up on that other monster for long enough to allow us to come up with a plan."

"But that's just as bad. For how super long do we wait? How super many of those beetles are there? Can that super number 1 even beat him as he is now? We need to think of how to end one matter or another ourselves."

"...We could try-"

"No. No, no, no, no. Super no."

"I'm starting to think that use of super is really just a replacement for something worse but he really might be able to help us."

"I super don't care. I would rather have to take on that woman and all the beetles the number 2 can make than to have to deal with being indebted to that pervert."

Takitsubou tilts her head in confusion at her refusal.

"I think he's alright."

"That's because you were sleeping when he super molested all of us! I laughed at him doing it to the cyborg and the catgirl, I admit, but then he noticed me after he was done with them and decided to super move onto me! He smelled like a heavily used portapotty had a child with his breath! What use use is that power of his if he doesn't use it to freshen himself up before he tries crashing in someone else's home!? Do you know how disgusting it was to feel his oily unwashed face on my super thighs!? Do you know how hard I had to scrub them after that!? They still hurt from back then!"

"O-ok! We get it Kinuhata! We do but we need all the help we can get here!"

"I super get it now. You super just wanted to join in on that fun so now you want him to super provide backup from for when you do."

"What!? Dammit, this isn't the time for this! I'm calling him, ok?"

"Fine. I super bet that it's just some elaborate voicemail prank anyway."

It rings for awhile before he hears the familiar amicability of a certain joker.

[Hey, hey! What's up bud!]

"Thank god you picked up! Didn't think you would-"

[How dare you! I would never let a friend in need down. Even if there's a fast selling issue of Jump that just came out and I might not get it, even if a girl were to offer her virginity to me right at this moment, even if I was given the ability to control the color and type of underwear that every girl in the world wears for a day, even if I'm at death's door, I will always help my friends when they need it!]

The contrast to how he knew him to be as well as how Saiai had just said he was to how reliable he sounds now had Hamazura in tears.

[Hey now! There's no need to cry hombre. Now, tell me what has you so troubled so I can screw it up.]

"Well we've managed to get away but-"

[Oh. Sorry but I feel somewhat obligated to say this. My voice is just a recording. Speak your woes at the sound of the beep and I will get to them as soon-]

"God fucking damn it!"

At the electronic sound, Hamazura throws his phone into the wall with all his might.

"...I super told you."

"It's not good to break your stuff in anger Hamazura."

He sighs at their total lack of sympathy but the time for relaxing like this was over. A beetle crashes into the alley from their right and another goes through the wall of a building to their right to block that side. Before anyone can react, two things happened simultaneously. The first being that the beetle on the right goes charging for them quicker than they can blink. The second, that a pitch black hole had opened to swallow Hamazura and everyone else, including a very confused giant beetle, into it's void.

On the other side, they find themselves inside a warehouse by the water from the sounds of the waves outside. On top a crate with several others was Kumagawa.

[Hey, I was still there you know! I just wanted to lighten the mood a bit anyway. Well, guess Accel-kun had that right about me but what's done is done! Oh, you guys got a new pet?]

The previously flailing beetle, due to being on it's back, had just rolled over and began to assess the situation. It's wings beat at a high frequency. Within the great noise, the vibrations from the air produced a voice.

"Checking physical condition. All functions running optimally. Checking situational condition. Separated from other units, communications jammed, surrounded by enemies including Kumagawa Misogi. Target for removing Fraulein Kreutune's reason for her rampage in sight. Prioritizing mission over self."

It lowers it's horned cannon at the girl as everyone else takes a stance to fight the bug.

Well. Not everyone.

[Whoa! Whoa! Whoaaaaaaaaaaa!]

Kumagawa runs in between the two sides as he flails his arms. The beetle regards the movements but does nothing to stop him otherwise.

[We're all civilized peop- things? Living things? At any rate there's no need to resort to violence here! Look, what's your name big dude?]

"...Beetle 05."

[Hmm. Then, ah, how about I call you Ringo-san?]

It tilts it's head in something akin to confusion.

"Ringo...san?"

[Yeah because you're a beetle and all. I mean, I can't really call you John since you don't seem to be in charge. Well that and you don't seem like that popular of a guy. But that definitely means you and I can be friends in that case Ringo-san!]

"Y-yeah! In the first place, there shouldn't be any reason to fight!"

"I think so too! yells Misaka as Misaka shakily stands by Kumagawa."

The two girls had slipped from their caretakers and ran up to the negotiator's side. At this, the ones behind them started to get anxious but Kumagawa began to shout at them.

[Don't worry! Everything's fine! It's ok so don't do anything or else Ringo-san might think we really don't want to talk this one out!]

"But I don't-"

[So Ringo-san, isn't it your dream to be a drummer? Let's form a band!]

"...What?"

[Yeah! Accel-kun can be on vocals, I can be on bass, Zura-chan can be on the keytar, and I'll be on the tambourine! It'll be loads of fun!]

"I don't quite get it but you seem to be messing with me."

[Ah, yeah! You caught me! But you do seem to get humor. Maybe we can team up and be a comedy duo!]

"...Um, Kumagawa? Do you really know what you're doing up there?"

[Of course I do Zura-chan! At least 65% of the time, I'm always able to win the hearts of people!]

The beetle tilts it's head again.

"First, that doesn't make any sense statistically speaking. Second, that's not a very confidence filling percentage."

[Aha! See! You'd make for the perfect straight man, Ringo-san! But I can see appealing to your suppressed dreams of being an artistic beetle isn't working out. We can explore that later I suppose. Why don't you tell us what your objectives are so we can work something out?]

"And why should I do that? My target is in front of me. There's no need for talk."

[Oho? But there could be something there. Do you really think that there's no reason to keep her alive?]

"Very well. I'll humor you. The objective of the current mission is to defeat Fräulein Kreutune and eliminate the objective behind her actions, eliminate anyone who would obstruct the battle between Academy City's #1 and #2, secure the battlefield, eliminate the recent continuing threat to Academy City by defeating all dangerous elements and..."

The beetle twitches a bit before it utters it's next words.

"...And to protect the residents of Academy City from all currently anticipated dangerous elements."

[You noticed it yourself, right? How can you protect the residents when you are trying to kill one of them?]

"But it is the most optimal manner of removing Fraulein Kreutune's motivations."

[But not so when it comes to protecting her. Hell, why not just do that?]

It's wings remain silent.

[What better way to control our beautiful Frau's intentions is there than to protect that girl? You could easily lead her back to her cage in the tower that way.]

"That...may be true. But allowing you to live would for sure be against the second, fourth, and fifth objectives."

[Oh yeah. But killing me would also mean making an enemy out of these guys here who are all residents of this city. Can you really protect them when they're trying to kill you? That and I doubt that you can give me a permanent death anyway. It would just turn into a bloodbath here. No matter what you do, violence isn't the answer.]

"Nyah! Peace! Peace!"

[Yes, yes. You're peace signs are very cute little squirt but let the adults do the talking here. Oh but you probably aren't quite an adult are you Ringo-san?]

"...And what of the other beetles? They might not see it that way."

[Then that would put them in the place of 'dangerous elements' now wouldn't it?]

Kumagawa ignores Fremea's protests as he looks the giant in the eyes. Several times it opens it's wings before shutting them again. But after awhile, it speaks once again with it's horn still pointed at Kumagawa and the girls.

"...Activating order wizard. Validity of oral order 'destroy any and all elements that obstruct our mission' in question. No threat detected in two of the three designated individuals. Adding special factors considering the third...no threat detected. Protecting system and setting up new position from a different angle. Rhinoceros Beetle 05 will now protect those two in order to optimize the oral order from Kakine Teitoku."

[Whoohoo! Told you I could do it! Just call me the Hacker of Hearts!]

Saiai sighs.

"More like one of the two Jokers that super never gets used for anything normal anyways. So what now? We've got a talking Dark Matter beetle to protect them too but there's super more to it than that."

[You guys should be safe here. This is one of the hideouts that a Skill Out faction uses. All of the rest of my guys have gathered here outside of some recon forces being led by Matoi-chan so even if they come here, you'd know well enough in advance to blow this taco stand. Just stay here for the time being and relax a bit. I'll go and see if Accel-kun needs any help with that playboy. Ah, but is that alright with you, Ringo-san?]

"It does go against my objectives to let you go but the safety of these two comes first."

[Cool! Then catch you guys later!]

Kumagawa turns to leave. But Hamazura can't let him.

"Kumagawa!"

He stops in his tracks and speaks with his back still turned.

[What's up Zura-chan? You seem anxious about something. Did anything good happen lately?]

"...Is this all why you asked about Skill Out? So you could gather an army for yourself?"

[Yeah. I mean, you gotta have a posse for when someone asks-]

"Why do you need all that to fight Kamijou Touma!? Actually, fuck that, why do you feel the need to fight him in the first place!?"

Muted hesitation radiates from Kumagawa's background

[...Well, that wasn't the question I had in mind but I guess I can't win there either.]

He looks down before actually replying.

[Because I have to. I just can't accept a guy like him acting all self-righteous and believing that he's so unfortunate. It's just...something I have to do. There's no way for me to get you to understand so...just stay here.]

Hamazura's knuckles turn white and his next words come through clenched teeth.

"Just stay out of your way, you mean?"

[Yeah. I don't want to have to use you to defeat him.]

"Use me?"

[I don't know how you see me but I'm not a good person. I can't fight fair with people so I have to do everything I can to win. I would definitely use you to that end so please stay here until everything is done. There's no other way to keep you and the others safe than to keep you from me.]

"Are you serious? Do you really think you can use that emo shit as an excuse? Oh nobody understands me! I'll just hurt you! Boohoo! Who fucking cares about any of that!? You're my friend and so is he! I'm not going to let the two of you fight over something so stupid!"

Kumagawa's shoulders drop in resignation.

"...You really are a good friend Zura-chan. I think it's one of the only times that I can say I'm lucky to have someone like you worry about me."

Hamazura begins to smile as he sees that he's gotten through to him.

But Kumagawa's next words destroy that illusion.

"But that friendship can't stop me here. This isn't Jump, Zura-chan. I'm offended by Kamijou Touma's existence on a fundamental level. I can't say that I'll abandon everything for this fight but I need to put him in his place. Sorry but...goodbye, Zura-chan."

With that, he was gone. Hamazura could only stare at the ground as he curses himself for his inability to stop him. The others try comforting him, telling him there's no way he could've prevented it, but it doesn't work. Even if it makes sense logically, that sort of reasoning can never appeal to one's emotions.

* * *

 **Holy crap it's been too long! I feel kinda shitty that I have to keep telling what sounds like excuses to you all, especially when I keep getting the reviews I've been getting, but I really have been busy lately. I mainly haven't updated with any of this since it didn't seem like there was anything I could really break on and think it was fine. Don't really like where I ended this either but I need to update or else I'll just feel like I've abandoned the whole thing. Moving away from my pity party, some of Kumagawa's Skill users have been shown! Don't know how many I'll keep around or for how long I'll have them popping in and out but I hope you thought they were alright. I'm a bit worried about making the powers too broken but plenty of Skills in Medaka Box were broken as fuck anyway. He's also making plenty of friends in high and low places but worming into other people's hearts is what he does best. I really wanted the Touma vs Kumagawa fight for this update but the next one will for sure have it. Kinda has to since I've only got the end of the Ichihanaran Festival Arc to do left for this one. My hope is that by the end of this month, I'll have the next update done and put up since next month I'll be out in an area without internet. Seriously though, thanks for the reviews, for reading, and for putting up with a near perpetually on hiatus author like me. Here's to hoping for another update before the month ends!**


	11. Chapter 11

Accepting Your Role In The Story  
Duel_Skill

* * *

Since he was born, he was the only one he had seen to have achieved the level of misfortune that he had. Some had luck lightly brushing against infinity. Some were cursed in everything they did. But for him, he was the only one with a such a tainted fate that it was a surprise he didn't have to roll a 600 sided die for every breath he took. Through the various worlds he had traveled, he had met many people with varying degrees of luck. Even counting amongst them, there was none that could approach his level. None that had his severe lack of luck.

This condition of his lessened somewhat once he left his world behind. That didn't make him any less cautious or more accepting of his decreased misfortune. For him seeing that he had gotten just a little bit luckier was like a patient with terminal cancer being told that he had just a little bit less cancer than he did yesterday. Even without his predetermined destiny to lose, he had to still plan for it.

He had lived his entire life as though the world could break underneath his feet after all.

It may be something to be underestimated when you question his luck. He was born healthily to two well-adjusted, middle-class parents in one of the safest countries in the world. They never divorced or were absolutely negligent in his upbringing. They made sure he was fed and had the ability to pursue whatever he wished for. Just looking at that, one might say that he started off far better than well over half the planet.

But this is where his situation becomes fiercely underestimated.

By being given such an excellent start, he was unable to comfortably accept that he was unlucky.

By having so many opportunities to make friends, he was unable to say that fate was what prevented him to attain friendships.

By having so many opportunities to fall in love, he was unable to completely blame luck on his inability to get a girl to love him back.

By constantly having so many chances to attain victory, he was unable to say that it was just his rotten luck that made him lose.

He couldn't survive like that.

This is where, even as a failure of a human being, mankind's capacity to adapt had saved him.

By being uncomfortable with his misfortune, he thought that it might not be his fault.

By having fate prevent him from having friends, he half believed that it wasn't his fault.

By not getting girls to love him the way he did, he realized that many aspects couldn't be his fault.

By constantly losing at everything no matter what, it all became something that was no longer his fault.

By making it so that no problem in his life could be blamed on him, he disconnected himself from reality and thus, finally broke his already fragile state of humanity.

His long, long fight to keep his emotions and feelings intact finally, finally ended.

His luck would not be what it was if that was true.

Medaka and Zenkichi had managed to somehow salvage the broken pieces and supervised as he remade himself. But his luck had already managed to seep into every shard that was collected. He didn't mind this and, for once, this wasn't his self-mutilating apathy talking. He had friends, people that actually cared and worried about him. How could he let his pathetic struggles get in the way of one of the only things that could actually break through the walls he had put up?

He can because it's him.

It's why he had broken contact with everyone he knew and loved. Because he couldn't let go of his absolute need to rid himself of being the nadir of the story he was written into. So, in the end, his selfishness won out and he made his existence in the world he was born into, all the bad and good he had done there, and all the relationships he made with so much difficulty as well, into nothing.

That is his misfortune. Even when he has all the ingredients for happiness, he can't allow himself to be happy. Kumagawa Misogi had long ago accepted that as part of his destiny.

But then he had entered Kamijou Touma's sphere of influence.

That one person had revealed himself to be someone that could theoretically reach his level of bad luck and yet antithetically be blessed. Touma had been blessed with being the main character, friends that admired and loved him, intelligence, worked hard, had even strangers and enemies liking him, and won when he tried to. Even if he paid for his blessings by having to get wrapped up in dangerous situations, getting his memory wiped and being regularly injured because of these incidents, being in danger of having to repeat his grade, rarely getting decent sleep or food, and constantly being poor, amongst a myriad of other things, Kumagawa just can't accept him.

Perhaps Touma's similarities aren't so much the issue here as it is Kumagawa being reminded about his weak points, which Touma lacks for to a certain extent, when he looks into that mirror. But that level of mental issues can't be confronted or even realized so readily.

For now, Kumagawa just wants to knock Touma off the pedestal that everyone else, himself unwittingly included, has placed him on.

* * *

Kakine Teikoku's experiment with attacking Accelerator's feelings had failed with the appearance of Mugino Shizuri. That was fine. He had figured that Accelerator would reach the conclusion that destroying those recreations of recreations would be fine even without outside interference. He had begun to expand his network of Dark Matter to preserve the system as a whole so that Accelerator would be unable to destroy it all before his choker ran out of power. All he need do now was wait.

But somehow, that made him feel...uneasy.

Everything was going as it should, nothing was wrong within his sprawling sense of self that went out across the city, and yet something was amiss. Something he can't account for. When he realized how easy a victory he had that it caused him to become paranoid, he laughed. Despite boiling it all down to just nerves, he decided to act. If all he has to do is wait, there should be no problems with a little more experimentation. His hail of Dark Matter spears stops raining down on the #1 and #4, hanging in the air.

"What's the matter? Does your pathetic power have fucking ED or something?"

"Haha. No, no. I can definitely keep going for awhile. I just thought I might use you for another test of my abilities. Besides I would feel a bit bad if I just wore away at you like this without anything exciting happening. At least this way, your death will be much quicker."

"Hah? The fuck are talking about? You can't even touch me as long as I'm connected to the Misaka Network."

"Well that's not quite true. Someone else has just recently proved that for me."

Accelerator frowns for a moment before his eyes go wide. Mugino's left eyebrow raises at his behavior.

"What? Do you have that kind of a loophole?"

"...It's not so much of a loophole as much as it is a logical fallacy being applied to reality. There's no fucking way you can replicate Kumagawa's power. It's the literal concept of nothing. Your Dark Matter may be something that people can't understand but it's not an impossibility for them to eventually grasp it. Nothing as a concept can't exist in reality due to it's absolute lack of properties so stop talking out your ass."

Kakine smiles thinly as the voids in his face narrow.

"That is true to a certain extent. Kumagawa's power seems to be able to produce an almost oppressive totality of nothing on whatever he wishes but I have no need for something so grand. Your field reflects any and all vectors but only if they have value. Things without that can pass through just fine can't they?"

The white spears of Dark Matter twist from the ends and become an array of distorted screws.

"With mass, volume, velocity, and every single other value being set at zero, there shouldn't be any values for you to manipulate."

They fire off paradoxically despite having no values to their speed or direction and reach just in front of Accelerator's face.

"You really are an idiot."

They shatter without Accelerator even moving from where he stood with a few seemingly missing their target.

"Hm? What happened there? Oh. You just learned from the last fight you had didn't you? Sorry to have insulted your intelligence then."

"Learned? There's nothing that I can do against that shit. The only reason why his power can work on me is because it doesn't exist to begin with. It bypasses my defenses because it's something that deals more with scalar values than it does vectors anyhow. If it existed, exists, or will exist, I can deal with that but not if it just wraps all those grammatical tenses and throws them in the trash. But really this is just pathetic. I can't help but become a broken record at this point when you come at me with this mediocrity. Just quit while you're ahead you fucking loser."

A low chuckle escapes from the lips of the human-like monster.

"Sorry to disappoint but that wasn't all to this experiment of mine."

A groan could be heard behind Accelerator and Mugino. They turn to the source, ready to destroy whatever Kakine planned on throwing at them, but they stop midway to preparing their powers.

"Kumagawa?"

[Guruh...uh...I...messed up.]

Several spears were lodged in his body with something like white veins spreading underneath his skin.

"I noticed him lurking around in the shadows earlier while you were dealing with those recordings of the clones. You said that not even you have a proper defense against his powers, yes? Then I have no need for attempting to replicate those abilities of his when I can just have the user in question use them himself."

Kumagawa's arm shakily comes up and produces a screw just as distorted as the spears. Accelerator leaps wildly out of the way with a boom that shakes the whole building as the screw pierces the wall behind him. In an instant, the entire building shatters as though made from glass, rusted metal raining down on all the occupants. Now outside in the underground passageways, the two level 5s stare in disbelief as one of the few that could reach them from so far below was slowly changing into something else entirely.

"Hm? Is it because you're rejecting my control that it wasn't as complete as it usually is? That's fine. I'll have total control in a moment."

Mugino, who had just barely managed to get out of the wreckage, mutters in disbelief.

"How the hell are you able to control him?"

"How? The answer should be obvious after all that you've seen tonight already. My Dark Matter has begun to replace all of his nervous system. Once I have replicated his thought patterns, brain waves, so on and so such, I will be able to use that power of his as though it were my own. Right, Kumagawa?"

[..gt..qwrrt...sasxz…]

His eyes twitch uncontrollably in random directions as tears flow freely. His flesh jumps as though every molecule had a mind of it's own with blood coming from every pore. Kumagawa's entire body was fighting against the foreign entity invading it with all that it had. It was losing badly.

Screws materialize from the air by the dozens and launch themselves through the air at Accelerator and Mugino. Accelerator was able to dodge them as he had before but Mugino didn't have his mobility. She was able to use her Meltdowner to shoot down most of them but three escaped her aim and pierced her body. White veins began to overtake her flesh.

"No!"

Green beams of light sever her left arm and lance away the veins that threatened to take possession of her body away. She screams out in extreme pain but that's not just because of her self-mutilating methods.

"Sorry but once they even touched your body, your fate had been sealed. I don't really need you so much but...well it'll be interesting to combine your abilities with Kumagawa's. If it's a bit of comfort for you, I've optimized the process from seeing how it affected Kumagawa so control should be handed over to me by the time I'm done speaking. For your case, Accelerator, the moment my Dark Matter grazes you, you'll be put under my control."

In theory, if he can take them into his system of Dark Matter, then it should be possible for Kakine to borrow the abilities of those in his control like processors in a computer to enhance his capabilities. He already has added the abilities of the Meltdowner and the Skills of the best, worst Minus. Say he added several, even a hundred, more, wouldn't his power exceed that of a computer, to borrow the previous allusion, and reach the level of a supercomputer? What if he added every resident of Academy City?

Couldn't he escape the restraints of the supercomputer and attain the power of a quantum computer?

"Actually, why don't I just borrow from that crutch you use for your abilities? That Misaka Network is absolutely wasted on someone like you. Under my control, I should be capable of reaching that level that you once sought after yourself. I can't think of a better method for revenge."

The sadistic grin widens his void-like maw until it splits his face in half.

"Using the processing power of the ones you claim to protect to gain the dream you couldn't while you remain helpless to do anything but watch."

* * *

Beetle #05 was at a loss.

It sat by and watched the two children it said he was going to protect play and laugh but this all felt odd to it. It had thought long about why it listened to Kumagawa's words but no reason in particular came to mind.

Was it really because it wanted to be an artistic beetle?

Probably not. Or at least it never had those urges before Kumagawa had mentioned them. It didn't feel any now at least.

Was it because it because it saw the flaw that was in the orders given to it?

That couldn't be it. There's no way amongst all the other beetles that #05 was the only one to have seen this possibility.

What about in letting Kumagawa go? Did it do that because of the risk he brought to their lives?

Also wrong. Kumagawa was a very real threat to the system as a whole but it could tell that he meant no harm to come to those girls. Otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered intervening.

It racked it's brain harder and harder over the issue but nothing came of it. So it decided to see if someone else might be able to provide the answers.

"Huh? I'm kinda having to work out problems of my own Ringo-san."

"My designation is Beetle #05."

Hamazura Shiage had been sitting off to himself as he mulled over what had happened earlier.

"Well, sure but it'd help more if we had something more, hm, personal for you. Like if more of you showed up and we call out 'Ringo-san!' then the others would just be too confused to answer while you respond to the call. That way we can just take out the ones that can't answer to that name. But anyway, I don't think I can help you out when I can't even help myself out over here."

"That's why I came. I couldn't figure it out myself so I came to see if you might have some answer for me. I'm not sure if I can provide you an answer but if we communicate with each other we might be able to reach some kind of conclusion that we couldn't get by ourselves."

Hamazura rubs his chin a bit at this proposal.

"Huh. Yeah I guess that could work. Well, I don't know. Maybe you're unsatisfied with being made to kill little girls?"

"No. As I had mentioned before, it's an optimized method for removing the motivations that move Fraulein Kreutune."

"Yeah but Kumagawa even said that's wrong right? Protecting them makes more sense in controlling her than to kill them. She'd probably just try to find some other method if you did anyway."

"Hmm."

"Well, what about my problem then? What do you think about a way to stop Kumagawa from fighting Touma?"

Beetle #05 tilts it's head.

"Who is that?"

"He's a friend of mine. But so is Kumagawa. I really don't get why he's so hellbent on fighting him or know who would beat who but I don't want either of them to get hurt. It's dumb but well you get the picture don't you?"

"Hmm, isn't this whole thing stemming mostly from the situation we're in now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Kumagawa seems to be prioritizing settling this situation before he involves himself too deeply in his hate towards this Touma person. If the circumstances surrounding Kakine and Kreutune were to be solved, then do you think he would continue to want to fight Touma?"

"I don't follow. Wouldn't that just free up the focus he has on this whole thing?"

"It would but considering Touma seems to be involved himself, it may just be that Touma and Kumagawa wouldn't be able to meet once a resolution has been approached. You had said that protecting those girls would be a method to control Kreutune but couldn't the same be said for this situation and Kumagawa? By reaching a quick end to all this, you could control whether they meet sooner or later. If you can change it to be later, you can plan better on preventing the fight than if you were to try it now."

"...Yeah. That might actually work. But I have no way of doing that myself."

"It is as you say but it's something worth considering, isn't it?"

"It is. It is. Oh. Looks like something is going on over by the entrance. I need to see what's going on. Sorry. You did more for my problem than I could for yours but thank you anyway."

He walks over to the commotion as the beetle ruminates on what he's learned. A small cracking sound could be heard if one listened close enough but there was none there that were paying any attention.

* * *

Accelerator stares at Kakine with a blank face, unable to fully comprehend what was happening.

"Oh? Is your unimaginative mind incapable of realizing what's going to happen? I'm telling you that I'm going to weaponize the ones that you care about to allow for me to attain level 6 just so I can destroy you. I'm fully capable of going that far just to beat you."

"..."

Kakine shrugs his shoulders noncommittally.

"Well, it's fine to stop every once and awhile to smell the roses but-"

"Kekakahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

All at once, Accelerator fell to the floor and rolled about with his hands clutching his gut.

"What? Have you been driven mad by the futility of fighting me?"

"No! Stop! Please-hahahahahaha! Goddamn it Kumagawa, you were right after all!"

Kakine looks over to Kumagawa, quizzically, but there was nothing unusual going on with him. He just stands where Kakine had set him with a vacant expression. His body had been turned completely white by this point with Dark Matter. There was no way for him to even save himself much less be able to do anything for Accelerator.

"I can't believe I'm actually admitting that guy was right. It feels so wrong but that's what makes it so funny."

"Right about what? You're not going to say that he predicted all this are you?"

Kakine had said this with all the sarcasm he could muster to mock his enemy, sure that he was going to deny him, but in a way he couldn't have seen coming-

"Yeah, that idiot saw right through your shitty plans."

-Accelerator denies his expectations as well.

"Impossible. I have his every thought at my disposal, there's no way-"

"You're an even bigger idiot than him. If what you're saying is true, then go back to when he and I talked about an hour or so ago."

Kakine suspected a trap but his arrogance lets him humor his enemy anyway.

"Let's see...you had some touching moments with each other but nothing that really goes over what's happening now."

"Skip to the end you fucking retard."

An uncomfortable premonition itches at Kakine's scalp as he views the memory.

"Hm? Are you talking about him saying not to take me seriously?"

"Congratulations. Someone give the moron a fucking medal."

"I don't know if you should be the one to call me that at this point. How is not taking me serious supposed to help you?"

"You've been trying to make me lose control haven't you? You already said before that all you have to do is wait until my batteries lose power and for me to lose control over those black wings."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Accelerator sneers at the inhuman face staring him down with hate filling the narrow, dark slits where eyes ought to be.

"You keep acting like you're some sort of god that I'm helpless against when you have all the time in the world to laugh at me uselessly flail at you but that's just a load of bullshit. You're actually pretty impatient, aren't you?"

The slits widen into twin black holes.

"You're not some god. You're just some pathetic human trying desperately to become more monster-like to beat me. That's why you've resorted to indirect attacks like using the recordings of the Sister's memories and taking over the bodies of people better than you to try to get me to fight you seriously enough to wear out of energy just so you can throw a single weak-ass punch to be able to cry out in pitiful victory. Just how fucking pathetic can one one man get? I thought that Kumagawa was the lowest you could go but I think you actually beat him there! Hahahaha! Man, is he going to fucking PISSED at you when he gets back!"

He was surprised at first, perhaps expecting some counter-attack that he couldn't have foreseen, but now he's back to his mocking mood.

"That's it? You really think that's enough to win here? My system is-"

"Yeah, yeah, we've all heard your spiel already. And you said I was the one being fucking unimaginative. Well, I can see that part being right to an extent but with you trying to play at being monster, you're the one that applies to the most."

Kakine frowns as he opens his mouth to make some rebuttal but just as soon as he does, he thinks better of it and decides on a sigh instead.

"Well. It's no use trying to reason with someone as mentally unstable as yourself."

With a shrug of his shoulders, Kumagawa and Mugino step forward.

"Hopefully that was enough of a breather for you. All this talk has seriously detracted from my experiments."

Their white forms distort on the sides closest to each other. Kumagawa's left arm warps and Mugino's right arm melts as they combine with each other into a single entity. It was by no means a seamless transition from one side to the other. Kumagawa's side on the face was higher than Mugino's by a few inches. Their fused arm sticks out the center of the torso. Mugino's long legs are forced to support the heavy mass as Kumagawa's shorter legs just dangle slightly off the ground. The mouth was just a set of four flaps as the lips were entirely disconnected from each other.

"There's no need to preserve that form. It certainly will hinder their combat ability. Well, that and I have no further need to preserve the shape when I, myself, can use my own powers just fine without a small concern like that. I think I'll just take them for myself."

The Frankensteined form collapses into itself as it propels itself through the air toward Kakine's torso. Unlike the horror from before, there was no apparent conservation of the mass that was absorbed. He didn't grow extra limbs or faces nor did he grow in size.

The mass of Dark Matter simply melded into him quietly as the bodies of Kumagawa and Mugino were lost to Kakine's lust for power.

"Now, where were we?"

* * *

Hamazura had just left with Saiai and some French girl that had stopped by with some method to stop Fraulein Kreutune but the introspective beetle paid that no mind. What was distracting him were the two little girls under it's care that had snuck off while everyone else had their attentions on the French girl.

"Where are you two even going?"

"Nyah! We've decided to go help our friend!"

"What else could we be doing? asks Misaka as Misaka blazes a trail!"

They had been wandering here and there for awhile now with no apparent direction or purpose. They had stopped by a festival and won some prizes as presents for Kreutune. All in all, they hadn't really done anything other than drag the weary beetle around from place to place in search for their cannibalistic friend. It was getting exhausted but...it wasn't all bad.

But even so, beetle #05 had it's reservations about all this. It couldn't think of anyway to stop these two from coming into close contact with Kreutune other than doing it by force. It wanted to keep that as a last resort but by then it would likely be too late to do anything. It was at an impasse.

"There! In the first place, the GPS on the security buzzer says that she's on the overpass over there!"

It walks them over in that direction but all of a sudden, time is stopped for it. The beetle begins to panic for a moment but then realizes that this wasn't anything that Fraulein Kreutune could have done to it's knowledge. Then it sees the source. For both this phenomena as well as his problems.

At a spot a mere 5 meters from its cannon barrel stood a boy with brown hair and wearing a high-class jacket.

His eyes contained a dark light that was only found in those who had continuously walked down the

hidden back roads of life. The thin smile on his lips seemed to contain all forms of confidence. Despite Rhinoceros Beetle 05's cannon being at such extreme close range, he did not remove his hands from his pants pockets.

In that world where all color had faded to black or white, that boy alone contained color.

It was as if he was illuminated as that world's sole king.

"Kakine…Teitoku."

* * *

Groups of glowing alabaster globes hang in the air next to their ivory screw counterparts. Accelerator smirks at the array, to Kakine's growing irritation.

A glittering mass of white rushes for that derisive albino as he kicks off the ground in their direction. He agilely moves around the gauntlet of obstacles with a smile that reminded Kakine of someone else. More and more beams and screws are projected onto the film of reality as Accelerator gets closer and closer.

15 feet left.

Kakine forgoes shooting him down and projects a screw to gore Accelerator with.

10 feet left.

Accelerator just keeps racing towards the sentient mass of Dark Matter, as though playing a simple game of chicken.

5 feet left.

The screw comes screaming through the air for Accelerator's blood and reaches within inches of his chest.

He should have had that oversized carpenters tool skewered through him. He should have had the Dark Matter coursing throughout his being and been made apart of Kakine's system.

"That's why you're not going to win by using Kumagawa's powers. You have no imagination."

Being shown this impossible result, Kakine was helpless as Accelerator slammed his fist into that whiter than white face. It wasn't nearly as powerful as what Kakine has experienced from the #1 in the past. In fact, it felt quite...normal.

"...You didn't use your vector manipulation for that? Why? No, more importantly, how did you even counter All Fiction?"

"That's not important actually. Fuck, it doesn't even matter. And I'm not just talking about whether I use my powers to deal damage to you or in breaking that sorry replica of that idiot's screws. This entire fight has become far too stupid for me to take seriously anymore. That's why I'm giving you this kind of a handicap. From here on out, I will only use my powers to dodge those pathetic attacks. It'll be like an adult placing his hand on a rampaging child, chuckling and laughing at the brat's efforts. If you really want to talk about futility, then you'll experience enough of it yourself."

Kakine's eyelids twitch with rage for a moment but then his face clears with a frown as he turns to one of the dilapidated walls and launches a screw at it. It lands, sure enough, but it was lacking or rather the fact that it wasn't lacking was the problem.

"...What did you do to All Fiction?"

"Huh? Why the hell would I need to do anything? It's obvious that you'd be unable to control it once you tried taking Kumagawa into yourself. Honestly, why would you actually introduce that kind of a virus to your systems to begin with? Oh wait. It's you I'm talking about. Of course you'd be that fucking stupid."

"I have all the parts necessary to reproduce the power. I can even partition a section specifically for using a copy of his exact thought patterns to force his Skill to recognize me as the user. There's no reason for it to be a problem on my end. Why would...wait."

A virus.

He realized what had him so uncharacteristically paranoid. It was likely just something like nerves at first but then he remembered what Kumagawa had said in those memories.

He had said that Kakine was making himself indistinguishable from what was defined as Dark Matter. That much was better said to be fact at this point.

So what did that make a certain Minus now that Kakine had absorbed that personality?

* * *

"It is simple logic," whispered that someone. "As long as you are a part of Kakine Teitoku, you cannot hesitate to kill your proper target. If you are hesitating, that reluctance to kill must be coming from some portion that is not Kakine Teitoku. There is something you have gained in this short time…something that the targets trust. When you decide to kill using that excess portion of yourself, you determine that you are 'betraying' the targets. So release yourself from those conditions. Let this kind Kakine Teitoku forcibly give you your orders. Kill the targets while selfishly resenting me."

The conclusion was clear.

Rhinoceros Beetle 05 could not become something other than Kakine Teitoku.

No matter what.

[Well, yeah. Even an idiot like me can get that.]

Both the beetle and the colorful boy turn to a certain smiling boy.

"Kumagawa? How are-"

[Ah, well I kinda sorta messed up and got absorbed by that playdough kid. Hey! There's the bastard right there! But...he's not white anymore? Does he have revitiligo?]

Kakine's eyes narrow at his introduction.

"How are you here? If I have fully absorbed you then your will should've been squashed by now."

[Sorry but I'm too sufficient a fool for your foolproof plans. Anyway this is an A and B conversation so how about you just leave?]

"That's not even how-"

[So Ringo-san. Is that what has you so confused and distraught? Because you can't be anything else than that Kakine guy?]

Beetle #05 looks over to where Kakine had been but there was nothing.

[Come on pal! Pay attention here! You'll be hurting my feelings otherwise.]

"...Yes. I wanted to become something other than Kakine Teitoku so that I wouldn't have to kill those two but..."

[Well of course you can't become something else. Why in the hell would you want to be something other than yourself?]

That much couldn't be disputed but...something other than yourself.

"I get it now. The reason why I changed my mind was because...it's my mind to begin with."

* * *

With that realization, the other part of Kakine Teikoku's personality began to die.

"What?...Just what the h-hell is going on? Did K-Kumagawa's personality someh-how shield h-himself from me?...H-he kn-knew. He knew about all this!"

Kakine's body was breaking down in chunks.

"I doubt it. Come on second-rate, you have his memories. You should know better than anyone that he isn't smart enough to plan ahead. If it was anything, I'd say it was yourself. That's where that lack of imagination comes into play."

"Myself? W-what-"

"It's a part of that infinite possibility that you kept blabbing about. You might not have seen it, doubt anyone else could have, but from that sea of possibility there came another personality to take over."

"No. NO! I-I was here first!"

"That shit doesn't matter anymore. What the flesh-and-blood organs connect to is no longer an issue. You obtained the infinite, so you broke past the need for that kind of thing, right? When a network made up of flexibly replaceable equipment has a portion become isolated from the rest, the isolated portion becomes a small network of its own."

His mind raced. He couldn't lose here. Not now that he was so close. Accelerator was right. Kumagawa wasn't the only intervening factor here. There was that girl with the level 4 AIM manipulation ability. She had been nearby when that portion had made it's decision. All Kumagawa did was give it the nudge it needed in the desired direction.

"G-god da-damn it!"

"With all that personality it shouldn't have been a surprise that there would be some parts of you that would surface and wrest control from you. There would be cowardly parts. Wrathful parts. Courageous parts. I don't know what it was that took over your system but if I had to hazard a guess, if only because it'd be too fucking poetic for it not to be, it'd be the kind part of you."

At this point, Kakine was no longer listening. He was searching for a way to survive the change. There had to be a way. He couldn't just let it be. Why? Why was it that he was destined to lose to him?

Then he saw it.

"...Th-the kind part of me, huh? So wh-what if it's the loser side then?"

If that part of him could surface and take control after it had been severed from the whole of his system, what says that he can't do the same? Though he'd have to take some shortcuts.

"All Fiction!"

A giant metallic screw appears and impales Kakine in the chest.

The moment it does, his damage becomes nothing.

"What the hell!?"

"...Hehehe. Hehehehahahahahahhhhhh! I didn't think that would work since it hadn't before when I tried using it on you but I think I get how to use this Skill now. It's really not something meant to be in the hands of a winner. It frustrates me to have to say that but there's no way I can use it if I don't face that fact."

"Did you just-"

"No. That fake part of me still has primary control. I just managed to revert the damage and cut myself off from him entirely. That would be a problem if I didn't have All Fiction but well you see the outcome of that. I can no longer rely on my Dark Matter as I had but this Skill will do it's job as a crutch."

Accelerator hadn't seen Kakine as a threat this entire fight, even when he had been fighting seriously. It wasn't that his attacks couldn't reach him, the attack on his heart using the Sisters had been near fatal after all. But this now became something of another level.

Kakine now had the full control of one of three abilities that Accelerator was aware of being able to reach past his vector reflection field.

Spears appear by the dozens but stop far from shy of the number he had been producing. It was clear his power was lacking compared to before. But considering he had another that he could rely on, that difference hardly mattered at all.

"Shit!"

Accelerator flings himself wildly out of the way as the hailstorm of death crushes the ground. The spears change to homing beams of energy randomly in mid-flight, making dodging even more difficult for Accelerator. It was like having to outrun a machine gun whose bullets can change direction without you noticing if you were too focused on just surviving.

"I can restore functionality if I use you to erase that fake of mine. After that I can make good on my promise to take control of the Misaka Network. It's too bad I can't enjoy my revenge but I have to prioritize my own survival here."

The worst part was their previous fighting left next to no cover. Anything that wasn't obliterated in the impacts of the projectiles got unmade from existence. Accelerator was effectively running across an open field of fire for Kakine to play with.

"Haaaaa. I really can't win can I?"

His tone was heavy with disappointment but the look was at odds with that. That smile was that of someone in complete control of the lives they toy with. But that isn't all that special a trait for a level 5 to have. After all, the majority of them have that burned into their souls to some degree or another.

"Well of course not. Even if you hadn't absorbed that loser into yourself, that fact would still apply to you~"

Kakine turns to the new source of mockery and sees a blonde haired girl with stars in her eyes.

"Shokuhou Misaki. Really? You're the eleventh hour savior here?"

Misaki takes the returning fire with grace.

"What? Are you stupid? There's no way someone like me could face off against someone like you directly. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for my little brother in spirit."

"Little-ah. You mean Kumagawa. He's gone. Now that I, personally, have control over that Skill of his, I have no more need for such a cancerous personality. I've since erased that virus from my system. Well, maybe he survives on the fake's side but on mine, at least, he's gone for good. Sorry to say but you're not going to be able to get him back from me. I have no current need for you. If you run fast enough, you might reach the fake and get it to make a copy of Kumagawa if it can manage it."

"Oho? So critical of me at first and yet here you are trying to chase me off. Are you actually afraid of me now that you've stooped as low as you have~? Well, it really doesn't matter either way to me."

She holds her hands behind her back as she steps over the rubble.

"He's right here after all."

Kakine flinches but as he sees what she was talking about, he laughs.

"What? You aren't going to say that he's going to come back with the power of friendship are you?"

He just couldn't believe something as absurd as that. No one could. But why was he shaking?

"Why not? Kumagawa was an avid reader of manga in the end anyhow~."

Behind Kakine, there's the sound of ruffling clothes. As though someone had just gotten up from the ground and dusted themselves off.

"...No. That's just-"

"Hey, did you know? That I had tried erasing his mind before? I messed up though and his memories became ingrained into my head. He saw all of mine too. As a result we became really close friends since we came to understand each other so well. Ah, but I'm sidetracking myself. You see, Skill holders and their powers are directly linked to their psychology. It's probably why All Fiction began to work for you since you started to see things his way, likely thanks to both your current situation as well as to his memories lingering around that head of yours."

Steps slowly approach with all the tempo of a predator enjoying the hunt.

"You were able to utilize All Fiction because you had his thought patterns and personality under your control, right? But it's not as if you had completely analyzed all that data yourself. The 27 some odd years he's lived would be pretty boring for the most part. It's just nothing but failure after failure after pitiful failure. It's like the opposite of those stories with characters that always win, there's no fun in trying to follow along when you know what's going to happen every single time."

The footfalls stop about 5 feet behind Kakine but he can't bring himself to look.

That would mean accepting that as a part of reality.

But reality is rarely so kind as to let one ignore it.

"I had not only burned his thought patterns and personality to my memory but I had personally seen through every second of life that he had experienced. Every defeat. Every loss. I understand him better than anyone ever has, to include you. Enough so that I begin to hallucinate seeing him. You know how those screws of his work? He just forces his rejection of the world onto reality for all to see. Sounds kinda like Personal Realities right? So with that all in mind, wouldn't it be possible for such a person to be able to use that condition of mine to remake himself when he's reached the point where even All Fiction has been rendered useless~?"

Kakine rears his head to the one he can no longer neglect.

There, dressed in an all black uniform from a certain school, was his enemy.

[Thanks for the long-winded exposition, Misaki-chan! With that, my brain death has become nothing! Oh hey, I got my jacket back. Nice.]

"This is just a trick! You really expect me to believe a convoluted reason like that!"

[Hah? Why would I expect anything from a thief like you, playdough boy? Misaki-chan just has such deep feelings for me that anytime she sees that I've died, she denies the reality hard enough for me to come back! Well, maybe that's not it. But I don't really care either way. I don't really like thinking too hard about these things since I might just vanish with a poof of existential dust.]

Kakine sighs as he gets his nerves under control. His eyes retain their dull, bottomless gaze while he stares Kumagawa down.

"...So what now then? Are you going to try fighting me? That might help you considerably. We're both at the point where fate won't allow us to win so you may be able to use that paradox to come out on top. But what's the point in that? What's the point in butting your head in other people's problems when you have plenty of your own? You still want to fight Kamijou Touma, correct?"

Accelerator turns to Kumagawa with surprise but the other person there witnessing this exchange, Misaki, just grimaces as though she had been anticipating this moment. The man in question averts his eyes but otherwise stays silent. That reaction was all Kakine needed to put a smile on his face.

"So I am right. I don't mind letting you go. That's not just some stupid villain cliché I'm spouting to get rid of you or something. It may have been a painful experience that lowered my power considerably but you have given me something so much more in return. Besides, I know that once you're finished here or whenever Anshin'in moves on, you won't be staying around for much longer. As long as neither one of us get in the others way, I can't see a reason why we have to be enemies. Go. Go take all your frustrations out on that protagonist so you can focus wholeheartedly on saving the girl you love. That's what you came here for."

Kumagawa eyes glue themselves to the floor as Accelerator steps forward a few paces, fists and teeth clenched.

"What's the meaning of this?"

It was a few moments before he could turn to the one that questioned him.

"...I need to beat him. It's a matter of principal."

"Ah, so it ain't fucking personal then?"

Accelerator had spit those caustically sardonic words out with the expectation to be denied.

"Yeah. It's definitely a personal matter. I can't stand someone like him."

The albino hands relax as their owner raises an eyebrow.

"Oh. Well, feel free then?"

Everyone else looks at him in confusion.

"The fuck are you all gawking at? If it's personal then I can't imagine that you'd kill him. Hell, if anything you'd fix all the damage you'd do afterwards anyway. No matter who won it. Or am I wrong?"

Kumagawa blinks several times as his mind tries to recall the processes that operate his mouth.

"Uh, well. Yeah. I was going to put the screws to him but I had no plans to murder him."

It's Kakine's turn to be flabbergasted.

"What? He's your antithesis isn't he? Don't you-"

[You're stupid. My antithesis remains where she has always been, back in my old world. Touma annoys the hell out of me just by existing, sure, but I've never been a murderer! I'm not some loonie like you!]

The Dark Matter being opens his mouth as though to reply but he decides on simply shaking his head.

"Can't say I didn't try."

[Guys like us just can't win, can we?]

"Yeah. That's right. Shall we get to it then?"

[Yep! It's not my fault you decided to try using All Fiction so don't blame me when you lose!]

"That's my line."

Spears and screws race for dominance in the sky as the multiply from thin air. Dozens. Hundreds. Thousands. The moonlight glittering on their surfaces gave off the appearance of the objects trying to become more numerous than the stars in their bid against each other.

[Hey, Misaki-chan? Can you take care of Accel-kun? He'll need some help in coming up with the answer to this problem.]

"Wha-"

The moment Kumagawa returns Kakine's look, Misaki realizes that he wasn't going to wait for her. She runs out and takes Accelerator's hand just as both sides fired their arsenals at one another. As soon as they had dove behind some small bit of rubble for cover, she gasps for breath.

"Geeze! What does...that idiot think I am? Nobody can just...run flat out like that!"

On the other hand, Accelerator breathes just fine while he stares her down.

"...Just how fucking out of shape are you?"

"What!? Do you really think you can talk!? You look like some girl with cancer!"

"Wow. So your true face shows, huh Mental Out? Didn't think you'd be one for jokes in such poor taste but I guess that assclown out there is rubbing off on you."

Misaki huffs in frustration.

"Whatever. I didn't come rushing out to grab you so you could just belittle me."

"It's not like you make it hard with that fucking bog body of yours."

"Bo-bog body!? Wha- calm down. Calm down. He's just trying to get a rise out of me by saying ridiculous things. Just remember the pictures Kumagawa sent of that uniform he forced on that androgynous bastard. Pffhahahaha! Your face was so red then!"

The sound of plastic shattering erases all amusement from her face as her head creaks over to see her phone smashed to bits in Accelerator's hand.

"Needed some battery power. It won't provide much but a few seconds counts for everything. Thanks for reminding me about it."

"MY PHONE!? DO YOU PLAN ON PAYING FOR THAT YOU CROSSDRESSING PERVERT!?"

He sighs as he tosses the scraps of the device off to the side, much to Misaki's chagrin.

"Look, I'm sure he'd be amused by all this but I'm not Kumagawa. What the hell was he talking about when he said you could help me?"

* * *

Dark Matter and Minus. The both of them remained standing where they were as their projectiles collided with one another before they could reach their targets. Kakine's spears alternated between solid matter and energy beams while Kumagawa's would just become in their way within a blink of the eye. Spears, screws, and beams were deflected, rebounded, and destroyed upon one another. All the while their masters stood their ground in the middle of all the carnage. It was like a chess game on the scale of a war.

"Well, I have to say this rather…lacking."

[I'm just going off your first move playdough boy.]

"Really? You aren't just trying to buy some time then?"

These two spamming cheaters of reality idly have this chat in this chaotic situation.

[Oh no! He found out about our plan!]

"Knock it off already. You have power on par with my own at this point. I may have control over All Fiction now but it's impossible for me to use the others and there's no way I can push my will onto reality to create things out of nothing but my imagination. Why do you keep insisting on pretending that you're so weak?"

Even though Kumagawa's face darkens, the rate of screws doesn't go down at all.

[...You can see why.]

"Hm?"

[Or at least you should be able to considering you ought to still have my memories.]

"...You mean from back when you first met her? You couldn't have stopped any of that."

[Maybe. But until I win against Anshin'in, I won't accept any other 'victories'. Though it is a shame this time. You might have had a better ending if I wasn't here. Ah, well. Can't win them all!]

Another itching grows out from Kakine's scalp as he saw that smile of his stretch the corners of that joker's face. He was beginning to trust this instinct of his but even so he still had to voice his doubts. Better to spring the trap you're suspicious of than to let it be.

"What are you talking about?"

[It's just what I said. I never had any aspirations of beating you. To begin with, even if I cast aside my useless pride and went full bore into beating you, I'd still lose. So instead of suffering a loss, the winning move to make here is to not even try so that way I can't lose this fight!]

"Huh?"

Kumagawa's smile turns into a sneer.

[I'm saying this will be won with friendship, effort, and victory on the behalf of others.]

At once, all the artillery they fired ceased. For a moment, all was quiet. Then the sound of a body slumping onto the ground echoes throughout the passageways. Silence resumes for about a minute until two heads, one blonde and one white, peek above their cover.

"Did it work, Kumagawa? Is that loser down for the count?"

[Yeah, thanks Misaki-chan.]

They come out of hiding as they move up to the apparently lifeless form in front of Kumagawa's feet. Misaki keeps her distance behind Kumagawa's back but Accelerator walks over and kicks the body a bit.

[He was one of those kids that poked at dead animals wasn't he?]

"Hmm, I don't know for sure but yeah, he must have been the type to sadistically stomp on bugs huh~?"

The two jokesters had brought their heads close to each others in a uselessly conspiratorial manner when you consider how close they were to the one they were whispering loudly about. Instead of getting angry, he sighs as he turns to their snide, expectant faces.

"Oi. Tweedledumbass."

[Eh? Who do you refer to there?]

"Ah, good point. I'll revise these nicknames for you two."

He points to Misaki first.

"Tweedledumbass."

Then to Kumagawa.

"Tweedle-even-bigger-dumbass."

[EHHH!? Look, Misaki-chan, look! Accel-kun's heart has opened enough for him to give us such endearing pet names! I-I might cry! Our boy is all grown up! I need a tissue here!]

"Yeah. I get you're just mocking his insults but you're getting snot on me so could you tone the act down a bit please?"

Despite the displeasure in her voice, she makes no effort to pull off her blubbering friend.

"Could you move the conversation along, albino, so that way he might stop?"

With a click of the tongue, Accelerator does as much. If only because he has other things to take care of.

"So, how did you know that if Mental Out were to be used on me that I'd be able to amplify the effects enough to get past the reject's defenses? He might have weakened some but that really was the only way to have gotten past that Dark Matter of his and erased the memories he had recorded into that pathetic excuse for a back-up. I could have thought it up but it's pretty dubious that you could come up with that on your own. Did that Kihara brat mention it to you or something?"

Kumagawa scratches his head in shameful pride.

[Weeeeell, that was actually something I came up with. Misaki was pretty close to killing me when she erased my mind of everything but the basics. If she hadn't remembered everything about me, I would have been pretty screwed. So I figured if she had shot her mind beams at your reflector thing, you could mix in some crazy stuff to make it strong enough to wipe all the memory he has! Pretty smart for a guy like me huh?]

His chest swells up with pride.

"So, that means I could just kill you if I were to erase her memories before yours?"

Misaki's and Kumagawa's smiles freeze. Misaki's out of fear. Kumagawa's out his usual battle frenzy.

[Yeah. That could definitely work but-]

"Or maybe I could just copy those memories of what I did to you after the sailor uniform bullshit over to Misaki's mind. I noticed that was mysteriously absent from the memories that this guy had and when I think about how he had your brain, I can't help but think you might have used All Fiction on those memories before he could get at them."

Misaki frowns slightly as she thinks on this.

"You know, there were some parts of your mind that I couldn't access. I didn't bother getting past your defenses at the time since I figured I was going to wipe them anyway but...huh. They aren't in my head anymore. Do you know something about this, little brother~?"

The Crawling Minus that bets his life in the worst of situations with abysmal odds began to sweat and shake like a madman as the blonde eyed him mischievously.

"She was pretty amused at those pictures you apparently sent her but I wonder how she'll react to the costume WORST and I put on you? You were pretty cool about it at the time but will you stay that way when she knows about it?"

[Ah-hahahah. W-well would you look at my wrist! It's about a hair past the mole so I better go. Got things to see and people to do or something. Wait. I feel like I'm forgetting something here. Do you have any ideas Misaki-chan?]

"A better way to divert my attention from that detail you're so keen on getting me away from?"

[No, no. Definitely not. Most definitely not. It's...something else. Damn, it's right on the tip of my tongue too!]

Accelerator sighs as he rubs his face with one hand.

"The cyborg woman?"

Kumagawa's eyes shoot open as his mouth hangs.

[OH SNAP! How could I have forgotten!? Hang on a sec.]

He causally throws a screw where it impales into the air. An instant later, Mugino reappears among the land of the living with a bewildered expression on her face.

"What!? What just-hey, you're back Kumagawa? What happened? No, never mind. I can already imagine why. Hm? But why is that starry eyed slut here?"

"Haaah. I'm sensing a trend here among you high rankers and I don't really appreciate it. So, I'll just set things straight for you since it seems you lack the faculties of anything resembling complex thought. Without me, you would still be nothing more than a mass of flesh in that second-rater's body and I've already reserved my heart for one man. Besides, I don't know if the woman that once accepted ANY sort of job from that old man is in any position to be calling me a slut~."

"...You looking to start a fight?"

As it tends to happen amongst the level 5s, sparks began to fly between the #4 and #5. But those embers of a coming battle were snuffed by the sudden sound of a clap.

[Well! It's so nice to watch such beautiful girls chat so happily but I really should get going. Could you take that body over to that cafe where you first heard about me, Misaki-chan? I'd appreciate it! Later!]

He makes to go run but Misaki's unusually strong grip keeps him in place.

"Hey. Do you really think I'd be okay with this? 'Just drag the body of some comatose monster off while I go attack the guy you like', are you kidding me?"

Kumagawa sighs in exasperation.

[Man, everybody really has been hounding me about this since I started feeling this way about it.]

His lackadaisical way of answering angers Misaki, making the frown she wears increase in intensity.

"So it's my fault then? I should let you off to do whatever?"

[Well, no. I don't-]

"Drop the act and answer me seriously."

His whole body slumps at her confronting his attempts at avoiding the problem at hand.

"I don't expect you to be okay with this. I know how you feel about him but you need to understand why I've come to think the way I do about him. He-"

"He's some asshole that claims he has bad luck when he has so much going for him. Right?"

Her clear cut way of pinpointing the truth of it all stuns him until he remembers why she can do that.

"...Yeah."

"That applies to you too, idiot."

"I...know."

"No, no you don't. You're still looking away from that so can have your justification for fighting him. You just can't stand that someone else can win even with the bad luck he has when you can't yourself. Aren't you trying to change that side of you?"

Kumagawa's head hangs at her brutal way of pressing his face into the figurative mirror.

"..."

"But even if I tell you all that, you'll still go through with it huh? Are you really going to be so selfish about this when everyone keeps asking for you not to go through with it?"

"..."

"Fine. Have it your way. If words won't stop you then I have nothing left. But you better make it up to me after he has beaten you. I'm pretty pissed off enough that I can't do anything to prevent my little brother from getting his head smacked around so you owe me more than plenty for this okay?"

Her words shock him enough for him to whip his head back up to her.

"Huh? You aren't worried for him at all?"

"Of course I am! But like this overachiever said, you aren't going to kill him so I'm betting that he'll beat you pretty badly. Especially when you can only barely see yourself winning in any given situation nowadays. I don't care how injured you'll be mentally or physically from it, you are now obligated to take me to a cafe of my choosing afterwards. You'll be footing the bill of course."

"...I'm-"

Misaki's loud sigh interrupts his apology.

"I've already told you that you aren't the type for apologies so stop looking for an excuse to stop feeling bad about this."

"You really...know me too well."

Her gloved hand releases itself from his arm with great reluctance. Kumagawa takes a few steps away before he stops.

"Misaki, I-"

"Don't worry. If it weren't for the fact that I understand you so well, I'd never forgive you. But since I don't have the option to just look away from that, I have no choice other than forgiving you. You're my little brother in spirit after all. Even if you are retarded."

"Ouch. You...really don't pull any punches huh?"

"It has to be that way with you or you'd never understand. Anyway, do you really just want me to leave that there?"

Misaki points a dainty thumb over her shoulder at Kakine's body.

"Won't someone with the city just get him?"

[I'm betting on that not happening. Well, I've already done more than what I have to for Olly anyway so if he misses this opportunity, it's not my fault. At any rate, I'll come back and feed you whatever sweets you want to pay you back for dealing with my selfishness later on. So...yeah. Bye.]

In the blink of an eye, he was on his way to fight his unknowingly appointed nemesis.

"..."

"..."

What was left behind was two living level 5s and another that couldn't quite qualify as living anymore in the middle of a thrashed apart underground facility. Misaki looks over at Accelerator out of the corner of her eyes.

"...Hey-"

"Carry that by yourself. I have no responsibility for the crap he piles on you."

"Au contraire my whiter than white friend~. It was because of you that we were able to bring him down."

"And I give a shit? I have better things to do."

The strongest esper walks off as the fourth strongest calls out to his back.

"Oh well. That's your decision. I wonder if a certain video of the number 1 level 5 wearing a girls uniform will get enough views to pay for cab fare?"

Accelerator's feet stop in place with his hand tightening around his cane.

"...Do you really think you can fuck with me?"

"Yes, actually. The video is already on several flash drives in some security deposit boxes across the city so even if I die, someone will be bound to find it. Plus, if you hurt me I can just coerce Kumagawa to get into a double KO with you releasing whatever you have on what you forced him into while he puts out the one with you to the world. Honestly, it'd almost be worth it to see the too of you so desperately trying to ruin each others reputation."

"...He really has rubbed that shitty personality of his onto you. Why don't you just bug that cyborg for-"

He looks in the direction where Mugino had been but finds nothing. To reiterate, there are just two level 5s in this space.

"That sneaky bitch."

"We do agree at least on that point. Now could you use that number 1 power of yours to carry this guy up to the surface while I get us a cab?"

Accelerator clicks his tongue in frustration for what felt like the hundredth time tonight. Having to deal with these indirect types really wears at his psyche. Almost enough to long for the lonesome days back before he got involved with the Sisters and just had to worry about himself. Almost.

* * *

 **Whew. This chapter, and the next one, took some doing. I wanted to try and see about getting Kakine a bigger role but well, he is one of the Index series resident jobbers. It's the reason why a Minus like Kumagawa's can work so well for him, or at least as long as he doesn't try winning. Also, the level 5s are all assholes to each other. I don't think Mugino and Misaki had ever met in canon but I imagine that it would be like most meetings between level 5s in that they're just about about at each other's throats. Oh and if you thought I just had Kumagawa 'forget' about Mugino as a joke, you'd be dead wrong. I literally forgot about her when I was done writing this chapter. Just went out for a relaxing smoke, feeling all proud that I actually managed to get a lot done, and then WHAM I realize Mugino Shizuri is a thing that exists in the story. Oh well! The next chapter is done for the most part, it just needs a bit more fine tuning. But it does becomes more of a Birdway vs Kumagawa fight than it does a Touma vs Kumagawa fight. If only because I can't imagine the first encounter being more than something of a stalemate between those two. They'll get a proper fight later on though. Well that and because I realized how overpowered that whole 22 Major Arcana combo could be.  
**


	12. Chapter 12

At The Cost Of Many, The Fool Has His Way  
Zero_Minus_| |_Equals_Unknown_Error_Has_Occurred

* * *

Since he could remember, which would be 5 months starting tomorrow, he had the worst luck possible. He comes up low on money more often than not and not just because of his gluttonous freeloader but also because of pickpockets, machines eating his money, or even the occasional bird swooping down if he happened to be paying for something outside. He just recently had a problem with the shower head in the bathroom leaking onto his face while he was sleeping in it. Sometimes he'd find that aforementioned freeloader had eaten all the food in the fridge. There was also the concerns with his attendance record at school being basically nonexistent. He had become honestly worried about him having to repeat a year of school at this point.

But it was more than that as well. There was the constant fighting that he'd get into. Which had eventually led to a World War occurring because of the people that reacted on the magic side to Kamijou Touma swinging the Imagine Breaker. He had been in the hospital more times than he cared to count over these past 5 months and he had a hard time seeing anything having been changed between the pre-memory loss version and the current version. Nearly every day he faced off with death and somehow came out the other side with a win.

It could be seen as something of a mystery why he manages to keep throwing himself at these violent situations when it is messing with his life so much.

But that would be to remain ignorant of the core of Kamijou Touma's feelings toward misfortune.

Because in all reality, he doesn't resent that cursed luck that plagues him as long as he can see that others are happy. He is the sort that would be happy being unfortunate as long as no one else had to be. That's the one thing about the concept of fortune and misfortune he cannot stand and the reason why he constantly clenches his fist for the sake of others.

But there is something of a fatal flaw in this reasoning.

By putting himself below others in priority of attaining happiness, can it ever be said that Kamijou Touma is truly happy?

* * *

He had won. Against the odds and his own incredible misfortune, he had won. Kamijou Touma had beaten the boss of one of the largest magic cabals, Leivinia Birdway. Once again, he had prevented misfortune from clouding someone else's life. Now he just had to make sure that Fraulein Kreutune wouldn't go anywhere until the replica of Last Order's brain arrived.

Speaking of the devil,

"Hey! I've got the brain here!"

Touma looks up from the bit of rubble where he had been sitting on as Hamazura Shiage runs over from the access passage he had gone through to get there with a plastic bag in tow.

"Ah, thanks. I'll get that over to her."

"Are you sure this'll work? I'm not too smart but will this really fool that uh woman's body?"

Touma smiles wearily.

"Yeah. It has to. Her body craves Last Order's brain so this replica should serve as a placebo of sorts. After she eats it, she ought to change into the form she desires most right now. I doubt it'll be as frightening as what everyone expects. She'll be turned into something closer to human than the monster that everyone fears. I'm sure of that much."

"Well, as long as this solves everything then I have no complaints. At least it'll let me stop him before he gets here. If he does."

He tilts his head in confusion over Hamazura's cryptic words.

"Him? Who're you-"

All at once, Hamazura nervously flails his hands as though to shake the words he had uttered away.

"Aaaahh! Never mind all that! Here, I'll get that to her for you!"

"Wait!"

"Don't worry about it! You're probably pretty worn out from all this stuff right? Just sit there and relax. My luck isn't so bad that I'd trip and have this thing go flying over the pass or anything."

Touma winces hard at the unwitting jibe at his own unfortunate luck and settles back in his spot.

"Guh. Yeah, now that you mention it, that Murphy guy might screw me over there if he's given an opportunity like this. I appreciate it."

"Not a problem!"

With this, everything was done. The woman pure of the colors of either magic or science would become unusable and harmless to both sides once she ate that placebo brain. Gremlin might find another method for creating the spiritual item, Gungnir, but at least they'll be set back temporarily with this. Though, he realizes now, that if Accelerator were to show up, he might attack Kreutune out of rage if he sees her eating the brain. Which, taking his luck in as a factor, may very well happen but that bridge will be crossed when it needs getting crossed, he figured.

All's well that ends well.

Touma had heard that line at some point but he can hardly remember when. Probably in class but he never had time for that anymore. He was seriously worried about his grades but there was nothing to be done there that he hadn't already been doing. In any case if he knew what that phrase meant, he would know that it means a positive ending that can overshadow any problems that may have preceded it.

This would certainly be one of those endings. It wasn't everyday for him that things turned out so well. There may be some dangerously ominous things looming over the horizon but for today, at this moment, things are peaceful. Touma breathes out a short, sweet sigh of relief at how things had turned out.

He should have known better. His luck doesn't allow for positive endings where he's concerned. Even if it involves someone else and their individual luck. But even so, this wasn't his fault. He hadn't experienced being in the presence of someone with luck on par with his own.

Otherwise, he would have known that two such individuals have the particular trait of overshadowing anyone else's fortune when brought in close proximity of each other.

"Kumagawa!"

Touma snaps his head over to the source and sees that happy end he and so many others had struggled for get smashed to pieces.

"Fraulein...Kreutune..."

Hamazura had stopped just a few yards shy of where Kreutune's body lay with an oversized screw impaled into her chest. It was an odd detail to notice at a time like this but he saw that it had something resembling a minus sign on it's head.

[Hey Zura-chan! Don't worry, that just removed her monster abilities so-]

Touma jumps to his feet and shouts with all the righteous fury his body can muster.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST DO!?"

Kumagawa's head cranes around Hamazura's body to get a look at the one yelling.

[Uh, who's that guy? Kind of a mood killer huh?]

He had glanced back at Hamazura and saw the expression on his face.

[Oh. I see now. _That's him, isn't it_?]

His words contained an endless malice as his grin extended across his face. Hamazura swings his arms out and blocks Kumagawa's view.

"W-wait...Kumag-"

"Stand aside."

The instant change in tone and look forced Hamazura to move away. Kumagawa no longer wore the frivolously amicable appearance he was used to. There was nothing but cold venom burning into his eyes.

"Actually, you'll just be a hindrance here. Let's fix that."

His hand shot out and gripped onto Hamazura's face. A screw impales his body, leaving it to go limp, and with a flick of the wrist, Kumagawa throws Hamazura over the side of the overpass like he was unwanted trash. Along with the plastic bag he had been holding.

"Hama….why? JUST WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR!?"

[Hmm? Who're you talking to? Wait, is it me!?]

Touma's anger is kept at bay by Kumagawa's act.

"Wh-Do you...Do you not know what you just did?"

[Hmm? Hmmmm? I really don't? Wah! What's with that over there!? I-is that a screw in the woman there? Wh-what the hell is going on here!?]

His surprise was...genuine. Over the past few days, Touma had become experienced in shifting through people's words and actions to tell if they were attempting to deceive him for some reason but this time it seemed like he was telling the truth. Did that mean that someone had somehow been altering his perception to make it appear as though this guy had done all that?

The answer strikes him like an asteroid colliding into the planet.

[Just kidding! I really did screw those two pretty good huh?]

"Ahh...Wh..."

His mind was busy trying to wrap itself around this. Granted, one may assume that since he had been through a decent amount of bizarre moments that he'd be used to such things. But this was all far too much in far too short a time-frame.

Even so, Kamijou Touma was an adept at adapting.

"...I'm done talking to you. You aren't the type to be serious are you? So if you won't listen then I'll just smash your face until I get the answers I want."

He begins to move toward Kumagawa, albeit slowly in anticipation of anything he might do.

[Whoa, such violence! Isaac Asimov once said that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, you know!]

"Yeah? Don't know who that is but he sounds like a smart enough guy. Too bad I'm too incompetent."

Kumagawa drops the dumb act he had been doing and goes right back to his cool one.

[Oh? That really is too bad. And here I thought you'd do some cliched crap like try to understand where I was coming from so you could spout something like, 'You're not alone!' or 'Let me help you!' I'm honestly relieved a bit that you aren't. You aren't totally beyond redemption.]

"I don't fucking care."

Suddenly, Touma rushes forward but Kumagawa stays where he's at.

[Sheesh. So self-centered. Guess I'll have to take back what I said, you're far too self-centered to be saved. But I guess that matches the power in that hand huh? What was it again? The power to negate supernatural phenomena?]

Touma hesitates for a moment but his fist continues on it's path nonetheless.

[Ah well. At least between the two of us, I have a power that is _far more accepting than yours_.]

His entire body tenses as his sixth sense blares alarms but there's no way that could have helped here.

"GAAAAAAH!"

[After all, that's why it's called All Fiction.]

Screws had protruded from the ground at every angle to pierce Touma's body. The placement was on both arms but the ones centered on pinning the right arm were arranged in a certain way.

[Pretty cool huh? Like that, there's no way for you to negate any of my screws! I don't really know whether you can exactly or not but I find it's better to just assume from the start since I'm already an ass myself. That hand of yours only works from the wrist up to the fingertips right? So unless you happen to be double jointed, you are officially the first person to ever lose to me! ...That's what I want to say but really when you think about everything that's happened today, there's no way you could count this as a win. Ahhh, man.]

He walks around his enemy in leisure.

"B-bas...tard…."

He should feel better now that he had come to do what he wanted but it wasn't any good in the end. This is where Kumagawa really lost on. The cost had definitely outweighed the benefits of this. Then, he had wonder, was this how everyone who had fought him felt when they won?

"...Well. Let's leave that sort of heavy thinking for later. I'll just have to try to make it up to Hamazura but...that'll be pretty hard. Ah damn it! Why didn't I listen to everyone!? Fucking-no. No. This isn't helping me right now. I think I'll just-"

Kumagawa had nearly made the same mistake as Touma by dropping his guard.

[Oh hey, another blonde loli. Do they just mass produce you creatures somewhere in this city or something?]

The air had cut down onto the asphalt where he had been standing. In front of the gash in the road was Leivina Birdway, albeit a bit beat up and weary.

"You fight so hard against me only to be beaten by this guy? I don't think I'll be able to let that down."

"Nn-Get...away..."

[Yeah, I don't really care about you right now and what you were after is dead so-]

"You're just being _intentionally misleading._ "

Kumagawa stops talking but keeps right on smiling as he tilts his head.

"You just want to keep him riled up at you so you can keep whatever reason you found for fighting him. Yes, my _reason_ for wanting her could be dead but she's not dead."

[Who knows? Maybe I'll just make it so her life becomes nothing and she stops existing. That would definitely kill it for you right?]

Touma's eyes strain to keep open as he watches this exchange. Making Kreutune into nothing? Just what kind of magician was this?

"Oh please. We haven't met before but I've heard of you as much as I'm sure you've heard of me."

[Huh? OH. Yeah, yeah! I've heard lots about you!]

Her caution lowers somewhat once she sees how he covers for his apparent lack of knowledge.

"...Wait. You haven't have you?"

[Yep! Caught me red-handed little Tweety Bird!]

Her ever so slight opening in her guard goes away at that statement. He didn't know her. He knew her. Kumagawa excelled so much in his acting that it was impossible to tell the difference.

"I can't tell whether you really do know about me or not but it doesn't matter anymore. Step away from Kamijou Touma or I'll have you torn to shreds."

Kumagawa's left hand goes to his face as he presses up against Touma's pinned body.

[Oh my! That's so scary to hear from such a cute little girl! What should I do Hedgehog-san?]

His right hand goes to squish Touma's mouth as he manipulates it while he speaks in a girly falsetto, all the while still looking right at Birdway.

['But she's just a little runt of a dog that barks at everything, isn't she Misogi-chan?' Hey now that's not nice to say here! You could at least use some tact and say it behind her back like everyone else does. So sorry about that Tweety! He's not right in the head. Just give us a few moments and we'll-]

A stone pillar had rocketed from the ground and struck Kumagawa right in the stomach before a storm of daggers strikes him in the air and with another motion from Birdway's wand, his body is lit aflame.

"I'm sorry, boy. But I won't be able to do anything about those screws until I've beaten him. Besides...once she comes back, I'll still have use for her. So I'll just have you stay there until I'm good and ready for you to get out of it."

She steps past Touma as he frantically tries to stop her from going. He was sure she'd kill Kumagawa, that wasn't something he could stop now, but she was still talking about using Kreutune. Even though she was already dead to his eyes but if there was some chance that she could come back to life, he had to make sure she was safe. He pleaded with her to not go but she wouldn't look at him.

Meanwhile there was a figure, standing ablaze, that faces Birdway down. She can see that much of his face has melted down to the bone but even so, the figure smiled.

"Cut it out already. You don't scare me. _I've done far worse to others_."

Then, there was only an unharmed Kumagawa Misogi with nothing out of the ordinary about him.

[Che. You're a boring sort. Won't even play along and humor me.]

How? Touma couldn't understand it. It was almost similar to how Imagine Breaker works when it comes in contact with magic and yet completely different.

"I have no interest."

[Ah, well. But you really should get a better leash on that oniichan of yours. He has quite the temper you know. Plus, just so you know, I may not be of magic or science or anything from here but aren't Skills enough to tip her balance in another direction that your people can't control?]

"I don't know but you really don't think _she_ would have any kind of involvement here?"

[…]

"Well, I already know you have considered as much so I'll just move on here."

Her symbolic weapon shifted into a form Touma hadn't seen during his fight with her.

"I hadn't used this on him because I hadn't thought I had too. Still don't think I would have to when it was only a matter of underestimating his abilities. But this is a combination of all 22 cards of the Major Arcana will boost my parameters enough to match your freakish movements."

[Hehhh. Doubt it matches a Kurokami Phantom though. I can at least get near that if I want to. Though, it really hurts the joints when I do.]

"I have no idea of what you're talking about but regardless, it's not like I'm alone in this fight. There's my own allies but there's also more than that. Even if I'm Kamijou Touma's enemy when in relation to Fraulein Kreutune,when it comes to the boy himself the others that had come to help him _will surely aid him again like they did when I was fighting him_."

She had said this in full expectation that someone, the Railgun girl, Thor or one of the Saints, would leap in but there were sounds of fighting coming from where they had been earlier.

[ _That would be convenient wouldn't it_?]

There was a boy wearing sports gear and was firing odd, flesh like objects from his hands that would grow over time to the size of cars at Misaka Mikoto while his partner, a full grown man with a beard, screams bolts of red energy from his mouth. There was a girl with a hoodie and a folding knife facing down Thor. There was one woman with a myriad of glowing numbers that covered nearly every surface of her skin fighting toe to toe with Silvia the Saint without breaking a sweat on her end. There were three middle school boys, sitting on each other's shoulders to somehow meld with one another's minds and become the projection of a giant man straight out of Conan the Barbarian, that was beating back the Saint/Valkyrie combo, Brunhild Eiktobel.

There were other sounds from farther than where those ones were but it was obvious that she was alone in her fight against Kumagawa.

[It's only proper etiquette to bring enough people to match the others for a party right? At any rate, it's just you with your wand and me with my screws. I've already fought with those Saints before and I can tell you that if you can't at least get up to their level, then there's no way you can reach the level of Medaka-chan or Anshin'in-san. You'll just get screwed here before you can say anymore scary stuff.]

"...They couldn't possibly keep up with them. I don't know how you managed to give them Skills but-"

[Well, yeah! Of course they're still newbies here! That's why I've gotten them hooked up with my more ehhh reconnaissance and intelligence related Skill users. They're having all the information they need to fight them sent straight to their minds while their fighting them. Think of it like having some weak character that you've built up be put in the hands of some super difficult setting of AI. They'll still get experience by living through it but they won't have to deal with the pain that comes from making mistakes and risk losing to those guys up there! Honestly, somehow those guys rolled some good abilities out of this whole thing. Makes me jealous.]

Skill users. Not magic or science. Medaka. Anshin'in. Making things nothing. This was all confusing. But one part of it all was clear to Touma, everyone was dealing with people on par with this Kumagawa guy. Who was able to stand on the same level as Saints somehow. It all sounded too ridiculous to believe but it was already too dangerous to underestimate. He needed to free himself but there was no way he could see of doing so without tearing his own arms off, which came with it's own obvious and not-so obvious dangers. He clenched his teeth as he was forced to only look on as Birdway faced that smiling mass of negatives.

Her wand shifts into a cup once again to rain daggers at a far higher rate and speed than before but-

[Ehhh? That's easy.]

Screws fire off to match her rate of fire until she grows impatient and has the cup turn into a disc so that several pillars of stone rise out and go to smash his frail body but-

[Still easy stuff here.]

They all crash into one another as Kumagawa had ducked under all of them and hid inside the protective pocket they inadvertently created but-

"Figured you'd fall for it."

Disc to wand, then there's a spout of fire being summoned into that impromptu oven. The screaming and cooked flesh messed nearly overpowered past the pain Touma felt, in terms of senses. But-

[All Fiction.]

All her work was made into nothing.

[Geeze, this is getting boring. You hyped that Persona type magic you use to be something really crazy but is this all you can do? If so, I'll just waltz over now and make you play 22 pick up.]

"I'm glad that you're too stupid to understand how magic works. You might hate him but he would have picked up on it by now. Well, I'm not going to give you any lessons here. _I'll just end you now_."

She disappears from sight. Kumagawa's head lightly turns this way and that without a real care for the fact she had vanished so suddenly. Then his entire body goes flying as though hit by a semi-truck.

"Hermit: Etteilla, Chariot: Ouspensky, and Hierophant: Thoth."

He looks up to her voice that hangs from the sky. There was nothing out of the ordinary there other than the sun.

[Sun? Isn't it-]

Kumagawa cuts his words off as he jumps to the side and avoids a burning blast of light.

"World: Rider Waite and Sun: Ouspensky."

He stares back up at the sky and focuses his senses around a specific spot. Through fighting and losing so much, he had gained the ability to see the weaknesses in all things. In that spot, there was something weaker than it's surroundings. With his target set, he lets a few dozen screws loose. Somehow, most of the screws wildly missed while the few that made it shattered on impact.

"Lovers: Rider Waite, Star: Rider Waite, and Justice: Thoth."

Three blonde haired doppelgangers appear around him with swords raised as they all slash at him. Kumagawa grins at first, prepared to take every hit, but then he begins to start dodging. Eventually he slinks past them. They turn to him with sneers on their little faces. He looks down to follow their gaze and sees a long cut on his side. All Fiction wasn't working anymore and the pain was great enough to mess up his thoughts even though it wasn't a serious wound.

"Moon: Golden Dawn, Judgment: Reverse Rider Waite, and Magician: Mathers."

The copies disappear as another reappears behind where they where with a golden shield attached to her arm. She blasts off at him with speed he simply wasn't prepared for as she bashes him back and over Touma, skidding across the empty highway road as he does.

"Emperor: Etteilla, High Priestess: Golden Dawn, Strength: Ouspensky, and Fortune: Golden Dawn."

He leaps back up, beat to hell and back, as he charges with a wall of screws flying alongside him. Birdway easily dodges around a few, most miss, but once he gets close, Kumagawa swipes a screw in his hand at her face. She nearly dodges this too but the tip grazes the flesh on her cheek. In about a second, the light wound closes. A swipe of her hand causes the ground underneath Kumagawa's feet to swell up and change to a bright red and explosions erupt all around him.

"Temperance: Ouspensky, Empress: Ouspensky, and Tower: Golden Dawn."

He had been sent careening all the way back to where Touma had been sitting before. His body lays there but from the rise and fall of movement coming from his chest, he was still alive somehow. Birdway summons up another trio of clones and gives herself, as well as the others, swords and shields.

"Despite what I've said, I still have yet to use the entirety of the Major Arcana on you. To give you at least some credit though, it's been all but five of them. After hearing about how you fought Ollerus and Fiamma back in Hong Kong, I had prepared for myself some new interpretations of the cards just so I can have some counter measures for your Skills in the event that we had to fight. Seems like I was right to do so."

Kumagawa remains silent with the exception of his strained breathing.

"So? Will you still be so insistent on fighting when I've rendered all of your power to nothing?"

Touma had thought so before, but Birdway really was too strong. He wasn't sure he could have come up with such a perfect way of sealing this guy's power, even if he had known about it all beforehand. Considering she had said that she, herself, had intended on drawing Othinus out to destroy her, such strength should have been expected but to see it in person was amazing in it's own right. He couldn't see a way he could have stood against her with that kind of power. Touma was honestly thankful she hadn't busted all that out from the start.

This is why he was shocked beyond disbelief when he watched from the corner of his eyes as Kumagawa stood back up.

[Haha. What are you saying, Tweety?]

He had been hit by forces strong enough to crush bone and several explosions. The gash on his torso was still bleeding freely. Even so, he still smiled.

[I can't use my Skills? Using all but five of your cards? Why does that matter in whether or not I stop fighting? It's not like anything is different from usual. Though, it's the first time in awhile that I've been so thoroughly beaten back.]

"Just what do you expect to do here? You can't use All Fiction on either yourself or me and I have a counter for Bookmaker as well as that somewhat hidden ability to project objects through shear willpower. Even your regular attacks have been rendered ineffective in even reaching me. I could go through all my cards in what they individually do but I'm not stupid. Even if I see no way of you winning here, you of all people can figure out some way or another of doing so."

[You really don't get it, do you? You keep talking on and on about how you've got me perfectly cornered but you've forgotten one important part of it all, I'm a Minus. Fighting losing battles is what we do. Besides, even this much is nowhere near as bad a fight as I had against Anshin'in-san.]

Birdway returns his smile.

"And? Being a veteran of defeat makes it exactly so that you can't win here. Sure you have that aspect of making the victor of your fights regret even fighting you but there's no way you can do that here."

[Oho? Is that so? Then, I guess I'll have to give up on fighting him altogether.]

She frowns at his wording. But before she could react to those words one way or another, he had somehow gotten past her and had grabbed onto Touma's face.

[All Fiction.]

Touma didn't know what was going to happen but he winced, his eyes shut.

"WH-WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!?"

Birdway's desperate screams force his eyes back open. To his eyes, nothing at all changed. He was still pinned in exactly the same spot as before. Birdway was physically fine but she was clearly distraught.

"Birdway! What happened!?"

Birdway doesn't react to his voice and just glares at Kumagawa with her teeth bare. The one having all that hate focused on, meanwhile, turns slightly to Touma and winks with a grin.

[What do you mean, Tweety? I said I gave up on fighting him so I just made his existence into nothing! I mean, otherwise there's no way that I would be able to let him go. But why does that matter to you? He was in your way, wasn't he? You should be thanking me here!]

Touma tries calling out to her again, to try to let her know that he was still there, but she remains unresponsive to whatever he says. It was mentioned that Kumagawa could make anything into nothing, so going along with that in mind, he had to have made it so she couldn't perceive Touma anymore, he reasoned. All Fiction. When he saw how it worked in action, he had to admit that it was a fearsome power. But he couldn't understand how he could have done so if she had it countered.

Then he remembered. Intentionally misleading. Birdway had said that was what he had done after he had impaled Fraulein Kreutune to give Touma a reason for fighting him. He didn't know why it was that he needed to fight him but he was clearly misleading Birdway right now. How that works into how Kumagawa was able to break her counter is something that is still an unknown but what is known that is if he had actually managed to be able to get past that perfect counter, Birdway was in danger.

"...Enough of this. You'll die for that."

[Whoa, the wrath of an imouto losing her oniichan is pretty scary! But at this point, your bark goes back to being scarier than your bite.]

A blast of power from the small sun in the sky strikes Kumagawa in his chest. But he is unhurt.

The doppelgangers come at him from all angles with shield bashes and sword strikes. But he is unhurt.

Birdway comes rushing in herself and with a booming sound from her breaking the sound barrier to reach him, she puts her whole power into punching him right in the gut. But he is unhurt.

"Wh-what...is this?"

Not once had it seemed like he had used All Fiction. In fact, he hadn't even moved in all that time.

[Ouspensky. You mentioned him before when you first started fighting right? I have spent a lot of time looking up useless things on Wikipedia just for the hell of it. Well, in all honesty it was just to play the how many pages till Hitler game but still. He was a Russian mathematician and, what is important here, an esotericist. When I saw that he had made his own Tarot deck, I got interested mainly because Persona 3 had just come out for the PSP back then.]

Kumagawa begins to walk over towards Birdway, his injuries slowly disappearing without a trace.

[At any rate, with the names you were using after you had mentioned the Tarot, you had probably said the deck type as well, right? If I remember correctly, the reading of the Chariot in the Ouspensky style had something in there about self-suggestion. That was how you beat my screws, right? If it's my will being projected onto reality, then all one needs to do in order to mess with that is to have an even stronger will to deny that. If you fool yourself into thinking you have more willpower than me, then you've beaten that aspect of me.]

Birdway had been backing away and firing off every ranged spell she had without any effect on Kumagawa's gait.

[But what if you _don't_ believe in yourself as strongly? Couldn't that aspect be used against you? It'd be awfully hard to achieve through normal means. You are a pretty strong girl usually so finding a weakness would be difficult in any other situation. So really, I should thank you for so willingly _pointing out where the chink in your armor is for me to stick my screw into_.]

By now, she had fallen onto her rear, still trying to keep him back with all she has.

[Your relationship was what prevented you from going full force on him and what enabled you to go full force on me, right? Then without that precious oniichan to protect, you have lost that strength inside of you, huh?]

Kumagawa raises his arm and produces an enlarged screw like the one used on Kreutune.

[I think I'll just hit you with Bookmaker. You are pretty strong though so you might only be stuck with it until you are well past your 30s.]

This is the point where Touma couldn't handle watching anymore.

"Get the hell away from her!"

Kumagawa turns with an amused expression towards Touma. Compared to when he picked Birdway out of the sky, he was pretty damn weak. Not as weak as Kumagawa but that's a hard point to fall down to. Even so, that boy was pulling against the screws with all he had to get himself free. So he decided to mess with him a bit by releasing the screws on the left arm. Touma begins to flail forward and tries running but is stopped by the ones holding his right arm in place.

[Well? You could try yanking off that arm but wouldn't you be out a power if you do?]

To Kumagawa's surprise, Touma begins to unhesitatingly yank his right arm against the screws, widening the wounds on his arm. It honestly startled him since he didn't think Touma would be capable of that. But, even when he gets loose, it would just be a regular boy without an arm. He didn't think he'd have trouble with that boy even if he had both. Kumagawa pins Birdway's arms and legs with screws and moves on to the even more enraged Kamijou Touma.

"GUWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

With that anguished scream, he tears his arm apart, up to the elbow, to get free. At that moment, Kumagawa's smile freezes. As is had been said before, Kumagawa Misogi had gained the ability to sense the weakness in all things over the 27 some odd years of life that he had spent losing and traveling other worlds. Everything he surveyed had weaknesses of one sort or another and to differing degrees. But what he saw then, stopped his heart for but a moment.

"Wha-"

 _Something_ had appeared from the torn wound around Touma's elbow. It rushed at Kumagawa with a force that he hadn't experienced before. But the main thing, the most concerning thing, was that this _something_ didn't have any weaknesses.

Without any hesitation, the screw he holds is slammed into the asphalt, causing the section of the overpass to break apart immediately as the invisible thing from Touma's arm comes crashing down.

* * *

Touma let's out a sigh as he stands out on the balcony to his apartment.

After Kumagawa had fled from the thing that came from Touma's arm, all the damage from the battle was restored as though nothing had happened between when the fight started and ended. Hamazura, who was alive much to his amazement, had said that Kumagawa had heard about Touma from some people and decided that he wanted to fight on principal. When questioned about how he survived, Hamazura smiles wryly and replies that Kumagawa had just made sure that he would be out long enough for the fight to continue and wandered off back with Takitsubou, Mugino, and Fremea to their apartment.

Before he left though, he explained what surprised Touma the most, Fraulein Kreutune being alive with a giant screw in her chest. She stood there with a blank expression but no sign that she had even noticed that she had been impaled. While Hamazura was saying that it was an attack that hits the metaphorical heart more than anything, the screw vanishes as Last Order and Fremea come running. He tries to stop them in fear of her attacking but instead, she simply stands there as she gets hugged by the two girls and eventually returns it while smiling.

He recalls what Birdway had said about what Kumagawa had done. If he really had been trying to mislead him into thinking he had killed Fraulein Kreutune, he had certainly did a good job of it. But even knowing that it was all just an act, it still pissed Touma off.

Kumagawa had still impaled Hamazura and tossed him over a highway overpass from a height where one would have normally died. He still impaled Fraulein Kreutune with that screw. He still drove Birdway to despair and pinned her down by sticking her arms and legs down with the screws.

Even if all that damage was made to have never happened, the memories of it were still fresh in the minds of the ones that had it done to them. Touma clenches his fist as he swears to himself that if he were to ever meet Kumagawa again, he'd knock the daylights out of him.

* * *

[AAAAAACHOO! Ah, man! That was a good sneeze. Whew.]

Kumagawa rests on a bench at least two districts away from his fight with Touma. Eventually, a girl comes and sits next to him.

[...Enshuu-chaaaaan~, what the fuck was thaaaaaat~?]

She passes a cold sports drink over to her weary friend.

"We don't really know. It was displayed during the war but no other information could be found out about it. Noukan-ojichan may know but the Chairman for sure knows about it."

Kumagawa presses the icy bottle against his forehead.

[Chairman huh. He was the one that sent Misaki-chan to fight me right? He's a pretty sly bastard to be thinking that I might be able to do something against _that_. Or maybe that's why he wanted to prevent that guy's death, so that thing doesn't just rampage across the city.]

After sipping on her canned coffee, she looks to Kumagawa with an emotionless expression.

"Or it could be for something else entirely."

[Hm. I don't like this city too much.]

"Because you got into a fight with someone innocent for selfish reasons even when you had everyone telling you not to?"

He stretches his head back over the other side of the bench for a minute before springing forward as he opens the bottle to take a swig of his drink.

[Well, I mean, yeah. But there's more to it than that! There's something big going on here. If I had to hazard a guess, it probably has to do with Anshin'in-san. That Kreutune lady seems like someone that had their lives messed with by her. I don't know why she would but...she's involved. She has to be.]

"Meaning?"

He sighs loudly as he stands back up.

[Meaning I'll have to go annoy that Touma guy for a bit. If he's involved with that Chairman dude and Anshin'in-san is involved with the Chairman too, then hanging out with him should bring me to her one way or another. Plus, us guys born with shitty luck have to stick together!]

"Hmm? Well, that's fine and all but don't try to stick out too much. The higher ups, and the Chairman especially, have probably noticed your return by now. They'll definitely do something about you here soon."

[Oh? Can I count on you when that comes to be my knight in shining armor or will try another experiment?]

Enshuu shrugs her small shoulders.

"Who knows? I don't have anything planned for the moment regarding you but those abilities of yours do have some interesting effects on things. By the way, why are you standing back up? I know you made the damage from that fight into nothing but you must be tired. I'll watch over you so feel free to relax a bit longer."

[I...I can't. You can't possibly know how reluctant I am to refuse a nap using your lap as a pillow but there's someone that wants to talk to me. Isn't that right?]

From behind some bushes, a long haired blonde boy steps out with an embarrassed smile.

"I got found out huh? Guess I need to take some pointers from Ollerus and Fiamma."

[What can I do for you, Thor-kun? Did you want to come and chill out with us?]

Thor laughs and moves over to where Kumagawa stood. Now that he was closer, Kumagawa could see that his hands had been set in some makeshift splints and his side was wrapped in bloodied cloth.

"Nah, nah. I fought one of those Skill users you have on your side, you know."

[Ah, yeah that's right! I forgot that we're on the same side and all. Sorry about that but it's not my fault that you decided to be that guy's ally.]

"That guy, huh. Well, don't worry about that first bit. She was a pretty fun opponent so I have no complaints. But what did you think after having fought that guy?"

[...He's different from what I thought he was but I don't think I can except a guy like that even now. Though whatever that was coming from that arm shocked the hell out of me! Does he just have strange horrors flowing through him in replacement of blood? Feel like we need a priest to exorcise that weirdness but that hand of his would have messed with that, huh? Ah, but maybe that could work now!]

"It grows back."

Kumagawa blinks several times before responding.

[I'm sorry, I think I might have had something crazy in my ear just now. Did you just say that-]

"It grows back. Apparently."

[His arm.]

"Yeah. The whole thing."

[Like...not like my All Fiction in that the arm just reappears out of nothing but-]

"It grows back after it gets torn off."

[...I can't deal. I've seen and heard some really far out there kinds of stuff but an arm just growing back kinda, yeah can't process. has stopped running. Would you like to make a report to the maker or would you like to end the program?]

"Hahahahah! Damn, you're a funny guy! Ah, but that isn't what I came here for."

[Yeah. Let's talk about that so I can get my mind off all this other weirdness.]

"How about a fight?"

Kumagawa blinks some more in respect to the god of the incredulous.

[Uh, but I thought you weren't mad about having to fight my Skill users.]

"Oh yeah for sure! But after fighting her and then seeing you in action, I thought it'd be a good experience to fight you!"

[XP? You come all the way over here just for some XP? Don't know why you'd do that. I'd just be like one of those rats in the sewers that beginners prey on to get a level or two. Why would a high level character like yourself want to level up off a rat? Do you only have 1 point left for the next level or something? Plus, you're pretty messed up. This rat might just chip away that last bit of HP you know.]

Thor chuckles as he raises his useless hands.

"Yeah, you're right. But you're also wrong. I am really messed up but I'm kind of hoping you might use that power of yours to make my injuries into nothing before we fight."

[I guess I can do that but I want to hear some more before you do anything, ok?]

"Of course, of course."

With the first word Thor had uttered, he immediately noticed that his pain was gone. He raises a hand and experimentally clenches his hand.

"That's All Fiction, huh? Yeah. This is definitely the kind of power I want to go up against."

[Sooo…]

"Right, to get to why you're wrong I'll say, to go with that gaming analogy, that if you're one of those rats that get farmed then you would be a rat with some messed up coding that enables you to kill high level characters like me instantly or to be able to wipe our inventories out just by being near you. Those Skills you have are too crazy not to take into account here. And that's why I want a fight with you. I've got too much power to go all out normally. I just got done fighting with Kamijou-chan for that exact reason. His power to negate can directly go up against my insane power. Just like your power to make things into nothing can go up against my power. I can use as much of my abilities as I want without having to worry about anything getting messed up beyond redemption! How could I not want to fight a guy with a power like yours!?"

[Is that so? Well, alright. I'll play with you some!]

Enshuu raises an eyebrow from where she sits and calls out to Kumagawa.

"Do you want some help?"

[Nah! Bringing you in would go from a one-sided battle for Thor-kun to a one-sided battle for me. Just go home and record that new show I've been watching for me please!]

"The one with the wolf girl and the merchant guy?"

[Yeah! That one! Can't believe I found a universe where it actually got a third season but man am I glad I did!]

"Fine. Don't go totally out of control. You can't watch a show in a universe that doesn't exist anymore."

She walks slowly away from these two battle hungry fighters.

"You can take out the universe with All Fiction?"

[It's not like I've tried it before but as far as I know, there's no limit to what can be made into nothing. There's only the limits that others can put on it if they work on that sort of thing and I can do that too but that's only if I'm more balanced out mentally speaking. I've long since learned how to keep myself at that state where my Skills are at their worst without becoming too crazy. Or at least I don't think I've gone that far yet but who knows. The thing about being crazy is that you don't realize it yourself.]

"Hahaha! Well considering that we're here talking about it, I doubt that you have gone too far with that power."

[Maybe. Do you have any rules for this fight?]

"Are there any in a true fight?"

[You're right but since you so politely approached me about it, I just wanted to ask. Uh, so, I don't really know how to handle this since it's been awhile since anyone has been so fair about it. I mean it's usually talk shit, get hit for either myself or the other guy in those scenarios so do you want the first move?]

Thor raises an amused eyebrow as he smirks.

"Does it matter?"

[No. I learned that from experience. Last time I went through this, the guy let me go first but I guess we were on the same wavelength or something because we both went to attack before I could finish counting down. Ah well. Anyway-]

His words cease to be as five electric arcs tear Kumagawa's body, as well much of the trees and ground behind him, to pieces. In the next moment, Thor had to use his magic electricity on the bottoms of his boots to blast away as a storm of screws cracks the ground where he had been.

[Hey! I thought we were going to have a fair fight here!]

"There's no such thing!"

His eyes, hair, and physical outline gained a pale blue glow about it as the arc fusion blades extended to impossible lengths out in the sky.

[I THOUGHT WE WERE GOING TO HAVE A FAIR FIGHT DAMMIT!]

"NO! SUCH! THING!"

Despite how they screamed at one another in between trading blows, they both smiled in earnest.

They both rocketed at speeds that were immensely difficult for the human eye to follow, the ground underneath them being destroyed by the impacts of their attacks. The entire park was decimated within a few minutes as they head for the emptied streets.

"Wait! What about-"

[Don't worry! I made their existence into nothing! I can make that into nothing to bring them back, none the wiser after we're done!]

"HAHAHAHA! GOOD!"

They continue their carnage filled engagement as the buildings around them get completely thrashed apart. Several come toppling down from Thor's 2 kilometer long arc blades that now come from the fingertips of both hands while others get slammed by screws matching those blades in size. It hadn't even been a full 5 minutes yet and they had already caused an estimated $20 billion in damages as even the underground infrastructure had been shredded apart.

Eventually they come to a street crossing, panting with exhaustion.

"Geeze. I didn't think you had that much in you to be able to match Lightning God Thor."

[He-hehehe! Thanks. You're pretty good yourself.]

"Don't disappoint me now. Because now I'm no longer restraining myself to the mere level of Lightning God!"

Thor's arms stretch out to either side as he stands back upright. Kumagawa tenses up to prepare for the attack to come.

"..."

[…]

But none did.

[...Um, this doesn't happen often for you does it? May need to see a doctor for that if that is the case.]

Thor glares over at Kumagawa.

"Did you make my magic into nothing you bastard?"

[Hey, whoa, hey! Of course not! I could do that, don't get me wrong, but I would never do it just on principal alone. Where's the fun if I just say, 'Nope, you can't play because I'm going to burn all your cards so I can win,'? Besides, you gave your challenge to me nicely so there really isn't any reason for me to be that mean spirited about this even if I know I'll lose.]

Thor reactivates the arc blades at 20 meters long to confirm this and once he sees that he does indeed have his magic, he disables them again. His face remains scrunched but less from rage and more from confusion.

"Then how why isn't it working when I use you as a target?"

[Target? You may not want to explain it to your opponent but it may help if you do.]

"...My power can extend beyond the title of Lightning God and make me Almighty Thor. It's my ultimate magic. By selecting a target, I can move the world around me to put me in the best spot to win."

[That is strong. Do you calculate out the movement yourself or is it automatic?]

"It's automatic, why?"

Kumagawa sighs and smiles derisively.

[Well, I can tell you that your magic is in fact working. It did the math and put you exactly where you need to be to beat me.]

"What? I haven't moved at all."

[Exactly. You don't need to be in a special place to beat me. All you need is the will to do so. Which, by the way, still doesn't require much at all.]

Thor's eyes widen before he bursts into laughter and tears.

"What!? How messed up is your luck that my power won't even move me to a spot to beat you in?"

[I could tell you but that would require at least several hours and no bathroom breaks.]

"Ah well. How about you use your other Skill? What was it? Bookmaker right?"

Now it's Kumagawa's turn to widen his eyes.

[...Do you think you can take that on?]

"Sure. It's not like I don't think I'll be affected by it but if you start firing off those screws at me, it might make things even more interesting for me."

The blades come back out to their full length of 2 kilometers as they cut straight through buildings.

Screws appear by the thousands, all with a single minus sign on their heads.

These two individuals that can fight on the scale of a war all on their own ready their destructive powers for their maximum usage. They charge at one another with the entire environment being torn apart in their wake. The victor was decided in but a moment.

"So in the end, you weren't enough for Almighty."

[...What just happened?]

Kumagawa had found himself on his back with Thor looking down on him.

"My powers as Almighty had activated. It'd be kind funny if it weren't so sad."

[What do you mean? How could that ridiculous power work on me?]

"Because you actually had a moment there where you could have won."

Kumagawa opens his mouth in shock for a second before he smiles peacefully.

"Haha. So I can win if I try after all. You're right. That is pretty damn funny."

"Heh. Still, you were a tough bastard, you know. But I should get going now that this is done. Othinus might find and castrate me. Or worse. You never know."

Kumagawa remains on the street as he waves Thor off. Even after he gets around to making all that happened to nothing, he stayed unmoved from the middle of the intersection.

"Haaaah. Why won't one of these drivers just get impatient enough to run me down? These people are way too nice to a guy like me. Ah well. I guess that's enough of my pity party."

He finally stands up and brushes himself off. Several of the drivers as well as some of the pedestrians initially try to see if he needed help but upon getting close, they all get a look about their faces and turn back to their businesses. Kumagawa pays this no mind and wanders off into the crowd.

[Let's see how my new nemesis lives, shall we?]

* * *

"Ajimu. How is he still alive?"

Floating in his tube while his guest sits on a desk she somehow materialized out of thin air, Aleister Crowley and Najimi Ajimu watch the screens that had displayed every moment of the chaos that happened that night.

"Good question. It's probably because of Misaki."

"How? Mental Out couldn't have-"

"Mental Out is an ability that manipulates memories. Granted it gets much more complicated than that considering how she does it but that part isn't important. What is is the fact that she has all of Kumagawa's memories with her. More than that, she has his personality burned into her head. If his primary personality dies in this world, then she would likely begin to hallucinate him back into being. This imaginary form utilizes the older personality's ability to force reality to accept changes it had wanted to recreate Kumagawa Misogi. Think of it like a backup save in a game for if you forget to save the game yourself or if the files get corrupted. With those memories in place, no one can permanently kill him."

"I see. I suppose that'll have to be fixed but the moment I can will occur later. Still, you really weren't involved at all?"

Without looking in his direction, she smirks.

"No. What about you, Edd?"

"What?"

"Well your little esper girl just made it so he's gone from semi-immortal to quasi-immortal. After all, it'd be fairly easy for you to get access to those memories, right? That and I never did see what you did with the old body. It's entirely plausible that what I said earlier is false and there is _some other method_ being used here to bring him back."

Now, she glares at the man responsible for everything that happens in this city.

"Wouldn't that be awfully convenient for someone that would want me removed from the world?"

Aleister sighs.

"And you're totally innocent in all this? I find it hard to believe that Fraulein Kreutune, after I had researched the entity personally, had nothing to do with you. Her abilities are rather in line with you Not Equals, wouldn't you say?"

"Hahaha! Well maybe, maybe not. I guess we're still at odds with each other even after all this time, huh Edward Crowley?"

"I suppose we are, Anna Sprengel."

* * *

 **Yep! That's right! TWO chapters in like, ehhh, 4 or so hours! Cool huh? Anyway this is the first of a few clashes between Touma and Kumagawa. It's not much, I know, but I just couldn't see it being anything more during a first fight. Later when they fight again, it'll be much more involved. Also, I may have made Birdway broken as fuck. The way I saw it was that if she could go as far as being able to intentionally misinterpret Crowley's version of the Hanged Man, then she ought to be able to cherry pick whatever else from other decks. I spent a good hour and a half thinking up what each of the 22 cards would do. It was pretty fun. I also went against what I thought I would do with the story and actually brought the thing behind Imagine Breaker into the story. It was perfect for making this become a stalemate instead of just having Kumagawa shit on everyone without Touma being able to do a damn thing. Don't worry though. He's not going to have to tear off his arm EVERY time he fights Kumagawa. For Touma, it just requires time and information. He's like a literal poor man's Batman in that aspect. Well,** **that is** **if Bruce Wayne was poor, never trained** **in martial arts** **, had dragons in his** **right** **arm, and had a little nun girl to gnaw on his head. Anyhow,** **I wasn't going to have the Thor vs Kumagawa fight initially but I decided against that since I found a decent spot for it. It was pretty fun to imagine those two getting a kick out of duking it out with each other. They're kind of a perfect match up when you think about it. Thor with his ability to move where he can win and Kumagawa who can never win. Oh and** **if you're confused about that last line to Anshin'in, that would be because the name Anna Spregnel is only mentioned like twice in the series. I figured for Aleister to know Anshin'in as Anna, it would give a new avenue of cool stuff to happen. I'll develop that later. The next arc to** **start on** **will be the Agitate Halation arc. Haven't really decided much on that end other than more shenanigans between Kumagawa and Misaki. That and a gender swapped Kumagawa for shits and gigs in the first part. Hopefully you all will be seeing more sooner rather than later since I'm no longer leaving for anywhere and will continue to have internet access for now. Thanks for reading!**


	13. Chapter 13

Escape From School Garden  
Misfortunate_Reunions

* * *

The master of Academy City, a man with innumerable and contradictory descriptors to his appearance and personality, Aleister Crowley watches the footage of the battles between Kumagawa Misogi and the various factors involved with the incident surrounding Fraulein Kreutune.

Though the matters concerning the older personality of Kakine Teikoku had been settled by many others besides himself, Kumagawa had certainly had his hand in defeating him. The fact that Kakine, the second ranked level 5, had not only come into contact with Kumagawa's twisted Skill but also became able to use it himself was also an event to be taken note of. If it weren't for that Minus interfering, things would have ended much sooner according to Aleister's calculations. Not to mention much less messier than it had been.

Footage of Kamijou Touma screaming as he tears his own arm off to stop Kumagawa flashes on one of the many floating screens in front of Aleister.

Even after many, many revisions to his multifaceted plan, the power that leaked out from the torn wound at that time wasn't accounted for anywhere. Considering how much of a wildcard he was, it was to be expected from Kumagawa to do the unexpected. That force was supposed to be something that should never have been presented, at least not yet.

But even so, Aleister smiles at what he sees.

"Has anyone told you how creepy that smile is?"

Aleister cancels out of all the screens, forcing them to disappear into nothingness, as he stares down the schoolgirl in the sailor uniform, Ajimu Najimi.

"Honestly it just reminds me of that loser. Then again, you really are similar. It makes me wonder if that might have something to do with why you've been so half-assed about removing him from this shitty story."

Aleister's eyes close at Ajimu's smug grin.

"I don't see what you mean. If I act too overtly, others might realize that I'm still alive."

"True. It's so weird though. Isn't Kamijou the linchpin of that plan? Why would you be fine with Kumagawa being so close to him? I know you don't care about success or failure in the details leading up to your goal but there will be more of the latter than the former by letting him do as he pleases."

"His unpredictability is something that can be trusted to happen regardless of whatever I do. His bad luck is rather infectious but removing him isn't something I can do until all the right circumstances are aligned. Shokuhou Misaki was only used because you had suggested her to me otherwise, I would have just waited. Though while we're on the topic of questioning one another, why are you so impatient about this? I would have figured that someone who is six trillion, eight hundred four billion, three hundred eighty-seven million, six hundred forty-four thousand, six hundred twenty-two years old would have learned how to wait for things by now."

Her gleeful chuckle echoes throughout the chamber.

"For a deviant magician among deviant magicians, you really are just too dense. Everyone knows not to talk of a woman's age so casually. But my, has it really been that long since I had died in that manga? Time sure does fly!"

"Don't ignore me, hag."

Her expression had only changed with her eyelids dropping halfway but the temperature goes with it.

"Boy, have you grown some balls. I have been cooperating with you only to get rid of Kumagawa but if you want things to be like that, I don't mind. But I'd also add that you need to cool that temper of yours, wannabe non-human. At least if you really intend to continue with everything after I'm through with you."

A sigh escapes Aleister, the bubbles going with it.

"It's my fault for provoking you like this but I'm too tired of how you run from things you're uncomfortable with my asking about.

Just as sudden as her rage been to set off, it gets blown away by her snickering.

"Jeeze and to think that you were so spineless in front of me not too long ago when you had pissed me off before. Either you've had some character development when I wasn't looking or the author is really out of touch with the character he had set up in the beginning."

"It had been some time before we had even seen each other when we discussed what happened in Baggage City. I had gotten used to that disposition of yours when we had worked together in the past but that tolerance had obviously decreased in the intervening time. Now I'm back to being able to cope with that anger being directed at me. You still need to use me in your actual plan, correct? I doubt all that planning and time being put into my early development was meant just for beating Kumagawa so cut the bluffing."

No words, no movement. Just her continued use of that small smile, full of contempt for all she surveys.

"With that said, I will repeat my question. Why are you so impatient about removing Kumagawa from this world?"

"...Is it so wrong? He's a threat to my plans as well as yours."

"Which is why I can't understand why you have been so, to borrow your words, half-assed about getting him out of here. You may not be able to be in this level of reality for long without damaging it, but you have other methods right? Or are you still so attached to him?"

Her laugh at Aleister's interrogation was as empty of emotion as her eyes.

"Of course I am."

Aleister's eyes go wide, his feelings showing on his face for the first time since the conversation started. He was sure she was going to deny it.

"What?"

She turns around with her hands clasped behind her back as she slowly walks away.

"We've had this discussion already haven't we? He was...someone that I had high hopes for. I thought he might be the one to end it all for me. Which was why I bothered to try to mold his personality into being one that could take mine on. He wound up disappointing me on that end but I continued to watch over him. Anyone would grow to like that idiot in the time I spent watching him flail around. My feelings one way or another about him don't affect my goal in the slightest. His existence here, however, does. I had been letting you handle him because, as you said, I can't be here for long enough to handle him. Or at least, not without leaving much of my power behind to do so. You'd just take advantage of that wouldn't you? Well, at any rate, it's clear that I can't rely on you to act for me."

Aleister's face scrunches up.

"And just what is that supposed to mean?"

She tilts her head until only her left eye is looking back at him.

"You aren't the only one with backup plans, Ed boy."

* * *

It was a nice, sunny day in the School Garden, a cordoned off portion of the city made up of 5 elite schools for girls. The overwhelming majority of the female population here was of the rich, sheltered girl demographic. As you walk through the streets that call to mind old, cozy European neighborhoods in the surrounding architecture and see the girls shop and peacefully drink tea, you'd be hard pressed to find a more calming atmosphere. Which is why it might destroy the images that any outsiders had of the School Garden if they happened to see the rabid mob tearing through the streets in search of their prey.

"Where did that pervert go off to!? Let's castrate the bastard before Anti-Skill hauls him off!"

"He's probably that Midnight Stalker that keeps getting seen on camera!"

"I think he went around the corner!"

"Get back here you perverted performer!"

Once he could no longer hear the footsteps from the monstrous schoolgirls, Kamijou Touma peeks his head out of the broom closet he had been in.

"Goddamn that siscon. Why does he always do this to me? This is just like when I was thrown out that plane above France. What have I done to deserve this? Did I break something of his like a game system or something before I lost my memory? Was I some evil bastard that groped Maika when he wasn't looking? I thought I had resolved myself to accept not knowing about my past I was in but getting Shanghaied like this is ridiculous. Haaaah. Such misfortune."

He sneaks out as carefully as possible and goes down a side alley. The reason why he was here was because his double spy friend of both the science and magic sides, Tsuchimikado Motoharu, had packed him inside a crate and sent him to the School Garden to take care of an invading magician that sought to use a spiritual item to forcibly suck out all the knowledge and skills of the population there.

The reason why Touma was being chased, however, was due to the fact that no males were allowed within this area.

"I have to find Umesaki Yuuga before he uses that Altar of the Wisdom King. It should be harder for him to set up since he'll need to find an optimum spot to set it up so he can get the most of this. Though it'd be just my luck if the bastard can turn invisible or disguise himself as a girl. I'll just have to punch him harder for cheating if that's the case. But I don't know the area. I need to find a map without being caught or taking up too much time. He said we only have two hours until the Altar can be activated. It's already been ten minutes. I need to hurry!"

Touma runs down the alleyways, going around corner after corner, as he heads deeper into the maze that winds between the buildings. As he runs, he tries to search for a map of the Garden on the internet.

"Damn. It wouldn't be that easy would it? They probably keep that information censored to let the schools keep their information secret from people on the outside. With how extensively built this place is, there should be a map somewhere in the open but how can I get to one of those without being seen?"

"THERE HE IS!"

Touma whips his head back toward where he had come from, seeing a bespectacled brunette pointing right at him.

"Crap!"

He takes off running again, faster this time with the sounds of many other feet following after him. A door ahead of him stops him dead in his tracks as it opens, a moderately busty girl with long, raven hair peeking outside at him. Touma tries to find another way but the girl had already taken his left hand.

{Quick! Get inside before they see you!}

He hesitates for a brief moment but the sounds of girls, thirsting for his blood, rushes him inside the hallway and behind the door. The noises stop at the doorway. His eyes peek through the crack between the door hinges as he watches.

"Hey! Did you some spiky haired guy run by?"

{Ah, yes, I did. He went down the hall and to the left. I don't know where he might have gone afterwards…}

"Thanks! HE WENT DOWN THIS WAY!"

The battle cries of the girls become louder as they stomp down the hall. Eventually, the noises die down and he sees a pair of big, clear blue eyes poke around the corner.

{Are you alright?}

"Ah, yeah. Thank you. But why did you help me?"

{Well, it didn't seem like you were a bad guy. They're too blinded by their rage to try to see things from any other perspective than the one that paints you as a villain.}

He nods and steps out from behind the door.

"Yeah, that's true. Thanks for your help but I have to go."

Touma makes to step back out into the alley but the girl holds his arm.

{Wait! You'll need help getting out of here right?}

"I will but there's some things that I need to do here."

{Oh? Then let me help you!}

"I can't let you do that. It'll be way too dangerous."

{Don't worry about me. Besides, you can't get around this place so easily on your own, can you?}

"Well uh no. No I can't. But this really is a dangerous situation. It involves things that are outside of esper powers. You could get injured or even worse. And that's without taking into account the fact that you might get into trouble with Anti-Skill or your school for helping me."

At his words, her eyes begin to sparkle with excitement.

{Outside of esper powers? You aren't with Anti-Skill then? Is there some secret group that you're under then!?}

Touma laughs awkwardly at her enthusiasm.

"Ah, sorry to disappoint but I'm acting by myself here. It was my friend that sent me here to stop things from getting bad."

{Is that so? Well that's fine! I can't just let you go into such a situation all by your lonesome. It especially seems as though the odds are stacked against you so I, as an ally of the weak, will help the weak Touma in fighting those odds!}

Her left hand raises from her side in an offer for a handshake.

{My name is Kurokami Medaka. It's good to meet you!}

She was an incredibly good person. So kind and earnest in her wish to help him, despite not knowing anything about Touma or what he's wrapped up in. Honestly she was hitting a lot of his checkboxes as far as to what he looks for in a girl. Having a girl like that at his side for this crisis was something of a dream come true.

He puts his own hand up to accept hers.

"Heh, you're a good person aren't you? I appreciate the-"

His arm stops just before he could grab her hand as a single question rises out from his subconscious:

When has he ever been allowed to have such a good dream?

After thinking this, many other details of their conversation come to mind as he realizes the answer to that question.

"..."

{Hmm? Is something wrong?}

"...Yeah. There's no way something so good would happen to me."

His right hand clenches until the knuckles go white.

{What are-}

"STOP MESSING WITH MY HOPES AND DREAMS YOU BASTAAAAAAAAAAARD!"

A cute squeal of surprise escapes her as he lays her out with a full powered punch to the face. The sound of something shattering bounds off the walls along with the one he had punched. What slammed against the wall was not that cute girl, however. Instead it seems reality had replaced the actress that had been playing her role for an actor instead. The boy was rather skinny and didn't look the type to be able to take that kind of hit without being knocked out cold by it but even so, this less than average Joe looks up at Touma with a bloodied nose with a savage grin on his face.

[Whoa there, Urchin-san! How could you use such force on a beautiful girl like that?]

The one with the hair that had called that nickname into being was actively ignoring Kumagawa in favor of his rage at fate.

"Why? Why, dammit, WHY!? IS IT REALLY TOO MUCH TO ASK THAT I GET AT LEAST SOMETHING OF A BREAK HERE!? WHY IS IT THAT ONLY THE WEIRDOS COME FLOCKING TO ME!? AND WHY DID THAT PRETTY GIRL FROM BEFORE HAVE TO BE THIS BASTARD IN DRAG!?"

[Well, I had actually used All Fiction to make the reality that I was a guy into nothing so-]

"SHUT YOUR GODDAMN MOUTH! GIVE ME BACK THAT PRETTY GIRL! GIVE ME BACK MY SWEET DREAMS!"

[I mean, I can but uh….that would still be me you know? Or at least it'd be my personality and consciousness in there. You realize that right?]

"GODDAMN EVERYTHING! HAHAHAHA, IGNORANCE REALLY IS BLISS HUH!?"

At Touma's loss of sanity, Kumagawa becomes flustered and scratches the back of his head.

[...Ah. Uh. Huh. I broke him. Crap. What I do now?]

"Just stop doing anything before you make things even worse, idiot."

Touma and Kumagawa turn their attention down the hall to the glasses girl that had spotted him earlier. He makes to run but stops at the girl's frantic waving of her hands in front of her chest.

"Wait! Wait! We're here to help you!"

"Help me? You were the one that sent those girls after me...and what do you mean by 'we'?"

At the last word, Touma pointedly glared at the still grinning boy while he stands back up.

"I sent them this way so Kumagawa could distract and send them somewhere else. They would have caught you otherwise. Though as far as that second question goes, I can understand how you would be hesitant about him being here. Especially when he did all those STUPID things despite everyone telling him not to."

The girl takes her turn to burn holes into Kumagawa with her gaze. In face of that heat, he had averted his eyes.

[...Thought that was behind us after I emptied my wallet at that cafe you wanted to go to.]

"And yet here you are messing with him again."

[Ah come on! Am I not allowed this much at least!? If I can't screw with his head like this, I may explode out of frustration, Misaki-chan!]

Glasses girl, or Misaki as Touma supposes he ought to be calling her instead, sighs and rubs her fingertips against the bridge of her nose.

"You know, I only just realized it but do you just keep using 'screw' because of your screws? It's not really all that funny. You'll just make people feel awkward when you keep trying to force a pun for laughs."

Kumagawa pouts as he crosses his arms.

[...You really want to play this game with me woman? I know everything about you.]

In response to his immaturity, she sneers.

"And I don't in regards to you? Stop trying to act tough little brother~."

[Yeah? And what about the urchin in the room?]

"Urchin? I think you're using that phrase wr-"

Once she had stopped herself, Kumagawa turns off that pout and turns the smug smile back at her.

[He doesn't know everything does he? Maybe he'll forget but as long as you're around for now, he'll still remember. Who knows? Maybe it would refresh his memory some.]

"...You wouldn't dare."

[Wouldn't dare what, Misaki-chan? We haven't even gotten to the picture albums you have or that body pill-]

A swift kick slams into Kumagawa's stomach before he can continue. The boy's smirk was wiped as he falls to the ground from having the wind knocked out of him. Touma winces just from witnessing the pain she inflicted but amazingly, at least to him, the boy still had room around his coughs and sputtering breathing to still be a smartass.

[Mi-Misaki-chan...panties...can s-see them.]

"And? It's not like their mine. It's the perks of being in someone else's body. Not to mention the fact that I can beat the crap out of you better than I could in my own body~."

Touma couldn't help but get concerned at her comments of using a body that wasn't her own. It wasn't just because of the hostile takeover but there was also the fact that Kumagawa was ogling up that girl's skirt while Misaki was letting him. Though, due to the current time constraints, he had to force himself from doing anything about that situation. He says his silent apologies for that girl and starts to walk out the door.

"Um, sorry but I have to go handle some stuff as I already said so-"

"Oh? Heheh~. Well, I doubted that you had actually snuck in here for the fun of it like some people I know."

[Yeah, those guys are garbage. Wait, did you mean me!? I came to treat you to that expensive cafe and that's how you treat me!? Enshuu-chan gave me a card with like 55 million yen on it and you made me blow half of that in under an hour! Well, I also spent a bit before seeing you at a buddy of mine's cafe but my point still stands. Anyway, how can you be so cruel!?]

Misaki ignores Kumagawa's usual comedy act and steps closer to Touma.

"So? What made you come here?"

"It wasn't my choice but it has to deal with stuff that you probably won't believe."

"Ah, right. Kumagawa had mentioned that it might be magic or something when we first saw you running through the streets. Well I don't know if I really do believe it or not, even after seeing it in this idiot's memories, but if it's you saying it, then I'll choose to believe that you're telling the truth about whatever is going on."

"Just like that? How do you trust me so well that you can accept me sneaking in here because of magic, of all things? Have we met before? Who are you?"

Misaki sighs loudly as she rubs the bridge of her nose again.

"I knew you'd ask but really, this is annoying. No matter how many times we meet, we always have this conversation. Fate really has quite a sick sense of humor to keep having us bump into each other. Well, suppose that could be my penance for having this power but...there's no sense in getting angry over matters that I can't help from-"

Her words cut short as she finally sees Kumagawa's frantic movements from behind Touma. Somehow, while they had been talking, he had gotten over there without anyone realizing and was gesturing with his index finger between a screw he had in his hand and Touma's head, his eyebrows flicking up and down as he does so. Misaki's eyes become half-lidded in a contradictive mix of melancholy and amusement as she tilts her head slightly with a small, sardonic smile on her face and waves her hand to signify her denial of his suggestion. Touma turns around to Kumagawa but sees him only whistling suspiciously with his hands in his pockets.

"At any rate I'm the fifth level 5, Shokuhou Misaki, and both myself and that guy there will help you with whatever crazy situation you have gotten wrapped up in~."

[EHHHHHH!? Why me too!? In case you weren't already aware, I hate that victim-playing, self-righteous bastard!]

"Kumagawa, you said you'd help me with this whenever I asked after the time we fought, right?"

His eyes go wide before he grimaces in frustration.

[I...did. Geeze, why do you have to be so relentless about manipulating me? Besides you just rejected my initial attempt at that. What else can I do about, uh, that?]

"Just let things happen naturally, little brother. Besides, I highly doubt that sort of brute force method would work too well. Or if it did, it'd work _too_ well."

She looks back over at Touma with an ambiguous smile.

"Setting that aside, tell us everything."

Touma briefly explains who sent him there, why, and the time remaining for them to stop Umesaki Yuuga's Altar of the Wisdom King from killing off a decent chunk of School Garden.

[Hmm. That sounds...off. Why wouldn't that Tsuchimikado guy have sent that box to someplace you could easily sneak out of? Hell, anywhere else would've been better than the middle of a girl's shower when you consider how it has basically destroyed any element of surprise that you could've used.]

Touma sighs as he rubs his head.

"Well he has thrown me out of a plane above France before so this is actually pretty tame comparatively."

[But that's what I'm talking about here. I heard about that stuff from Olly and at least there was a purpose behind getting dropped above that city. What's the point in sending you after a magician that is sure to be acting covertly when your own presence has been revealed to the entire populace of this place? How are you even supposed to act here when that guy has sabotaged you to this extent?]

Touma narrows his eyes at Kumagawa. It wasn't as if he disagreed with that statement. It did strike him as odd that Tsuchimikado would just throw him into this situation with such a low time limit when he had prepared so thoroughly before for many eventualities. But the how it was being put right now was just pissing him off. That and there was no way he could just wave off the situation when the possibility of it being a reality still exists. He can't risk so many lives on the doubts of someone that had enjoyed causing so much mayhem.

"...He must have had his reasons."

The target of that burning gaze was unfettered by it and just smirks mockingly at it.

[Oho? Is your booty getting hurt by me questioning your dear friends actions? If you really feel like you aren't getting screwed over by that guy then please, tell me how that could be.]

Misaki interrupts Kumagawa's attempts at getting on Touma's nerves with a chop to the head.

"Getting all confrontational isn't helping anything. Though, I admit, I have to agree with Kumagawa's opinions but all the same I'll differ to the trust you put in your friend. For the moment though, we should get the heat off of you or else it'll become impossible to do anything with everyone looking for you."

"Well how are we going to do that?"

[Why don't we just give them what they want? They won't stop until he's caught so why not let him get the shit beat out of him until they're satisfied. I can always just use All Fiction if he dies or something.]

Touma waves his right hand, fervently, a few inches from Kumagawa's face.

"Except that's not going to work because of my right hand you bastard! Don't pretend like you don't know when you flaunted your knowledge on me last time! Go get beat up by yourself!"

Kumagawa slaps the hand away from him while looking at the wall to his left.

[Mmmm, can't say I recall us meeting before today.]

Misaki looks between the two of them as they trade retorts for a few seconds before she smiles broadly.

"Fwahahahaha! I have an idea!"

"Huh?"

[Huh?]

"We're going to need an Anti Skill uniform and some hair gel~."

* * *

By now, there was no one in School Garden that hadn't heard about the street magician-like pervert that had appeared. Due to the students efforts however, Anti Skill hadn't gotten involved yet. The girls wanted to throttle that person before they sent what was left to them. One group of hunters was beginning to grow resentful at his stealthy capabilities.

"Where could he have gone? He couldn't have escaped could he?"

One asks.

"Maybe. But a guy like that would probably strike more than once. He's arrogant like that."

Another assumes.

"Arrogant? Considering how he appeared and disappeared so quickly, I would think he would actually be a lot humbler about his skill."

Someone else reasons.

A small mob of about 15 girls wander about as they conduct their manhunt. To them, this was less of a pursuit for a criminal and more just a manner of killing some time. Such was the case for many of the others in School Garden involved in this. It wasn't as though there was nothing to do there but since the Ichihanaran Festival had ended, they had been left wanting for more excitement. This was just a way for them to fill that void.

From a corner in front of those girls, a boy with spiked hair and a white, button-up shirt that was likely a part of a school uniform came bursting out from the alleyway with a sickening smile.

"Hey! The guy we're looking for had spiky hair, right!?"

"Either way, males that enter here all get the death penalty!"

They rush the boy as his arms swing outward to either side.

[Sorry but I'm not really interested in dying, so I think I'll just be taking your panties!]

"Like to see you try!"

[Sorry but-]

In a flash, he was behind the group with his back to theirs.

[I've already stolen them. Your hearts are next.]

They stop where they were and face him, ready to attack, but their hands immediately go to their skirts.

"Wha-"

"So this is the power of a true deviant."

[That's right! I'm a level 4 teleporter that specifies on clothes! Bwahahahahaha! How useless is that!? Why, oh why, was I cursed to have such a stupid ability!? I might as well go around stealing the underwear of any cute girls I come across! Though, at least you all are some of the cutest so far.]

As he points at them, they blush with various expressions on their faces.

"C-cute..."

"That doesn't make me happy at all you freak!"

Various comments of tsundere-esque nature come spilling from their mouths, much to his enjoyment. Normal girls wouldn't have reacted like this at all but because of their sheltered life styles and inexperience around the opposite sex, they didn't know how to react to such comments.

[And now I can count your hearts among my spoils as well. But, I can't indulge myself with your company for longer than I already have, so long ladies! I will treasure our time, as well as your panties, always!]

He sprints off but is stopped by a young man with slicked back hair in full Anti Skill gear.

"Um, stop right there criminal scum! Your stolen goods are uh forfeit! Come quietly or face justice!"

Kumagawa can't help but mutter his disapproval at Touma's performance under his breath.

[Your acting ability sucks Urchin-san. Oh, guess I can't call you that right now huh?]

Touma's eyebrow twitches in annoyance but otherwise remains in character.

This was all at Misaki's suggestion once she saw how similar they appeared as well as Kumagawa's comment on giving the girls what they want. As long as the culprit is out and free, they'll keep searching for him but if he gets caught by Anti Skill then they have no choice but to call the search off. Though this needed to be done in front of one of those groups of girls so they could spread the word to the others.

Kumagawa disguising himself as Touma was done so that they would superficially associate his behaviors and personality with Touma's inadvertent crime of being a Peeping Tom. This way if anyone sees Touma in the future, they won't link him to the one that was in front of them now. That and there's no way anyone could take Kumagawa acting as a cop seriously. Might as well use a pervert to play a pervert.

After Misaki and Touma swiped the replica Anti Skill uniform from a warehouse and Kumagawa had bought the hair gel from a store, they suited up and put on the act the girls witness now. Misaki was currently helping out as something of a stage hand in this play by hiding behind the crowd and feeding Touma lines to use by using her power to speak directly to his mind. The plan was to have Touma fight Kumagawa and then 'arrest' him, taking him off into one of the alleyway's under the knowledge that the back exit to a nearby Anti Skill building was through there. After that, they could get the official map of School Garden's entirety that Anti Skill has in case of emergencies.

Now, they just have to make sure their performance was flawless.

"Wait, why is there a male Anti Skill guy here? There's only supposed to be female ones working here..."

Both Kumagawa and Touma flinch at the girl's question. Their first hurdle. Neither of them could easily answer this question in a way that could blow that fact away. Kumagawa couldn't for the reason that he was the criminal and Touma couldn't either since he'd just look that much more stranger before them with whatever reason Misaki gave him since he couldn't act worth a damn in this situation.

"Quick! We should evacuate while he handles that perv!"

To their rescue was the bespectacled girl Misaki controlled.

"He came to the call I made about this when that pervert stole my panties and groped my body for a full 15 minutes! They're stretched thin enough across the Garden that they've sent in some male members to deal with the situation! We should get out of here though so we don't get in his way! Otherwise, that pervert might kidnap one of us and try to impregnate us like he had so many others before now!"

Her perfect, reasoning dissipates the crowd somewhat. Only somewhat as they just distance themselves from the two. They still want to watch the show after all.

"Haaaaah. Thank God you said something. But do you really have to incriminate me more, Misaki-san?"

'Fwahahaha! Don't credit someone else for my work and don't sweat the small stuff~. Just keep up the act and get to fighting. The quicker this is done, the sooner we can get to stopping that magician. Kumagawa, don't go overboard.'

Clearly, Misaki was having fun with all this behind the scenes but Kumagawa doesn't share the same sentiments.

[Why specify that to just me? He'll probably use this as an excuse to pound my face in, you know. I see the look in his eye. Freakin' psychopath.]

"...I don't think you should be the one to call anyone that."

'Because despite how mad he likely still is at you, I doubt he'll go as far as you'd go. Besides, you can just use All Fiction if he beats you that badly, right~?'

His head hangs low with faked dejection at her words.

[So cruel. So, so, soooo cruel Misaki-chan. Now I'll really have to school this nerd.]

"School this- where the hell are you from? Who even says that anymore?"

[Sphinctersayswhat?]

"What?"

[Assholes can't go judging other people's choice of words. Now if you're quite done wasting time, lets rock.]

He vanishes from view. Touma scrambles to figure out where he went but a sudden anxiety comes over him as he throws his body off to the side. A large crashing sound with a cloud of dust and debris to follow tell him that split second decision was a good one.

[Tch. Can't use my screws, can't use All Fiction or Bookmaker in any sort of an overt way, just what the hell kind of fun is it if I have to fight with these kinds of handicaps?]

Touma cranes his head around at Kumagawa, who stands in the center of where he had impacted.

"And you aren't even doing that right! How can you excuse that sort of an attack with a level 4 clothing teleport ability!? What, did you somehow utilize the force generated from the Earth's rotation into your calculations, Perverted Genius-san!?"

Kumagawa shrugs his shoulders lazily.

[Meh, makes about as much sense as anything else in this city so why not? Plus, can some random rent-a-cop really be allowed to have a precognition ability? I feel like they'd have a guy like that in some other division or something. Having a guy like that on criminal arrest detail is like having some dude that can punch with his mind being a desk jockey.]

"Well, it's really only a feeling I get in my gut when I come into the crazy situations I keep finding myself in these days so I'd say it could be fine."

[Your gut huh? That does make sense. It's where all the shit ends up at any rate.]

'Um, guys? Everyone's still watching. Still. As in right now.'

[Yeah, yeah. Maaaaan. Misaki-chan doesn't get the better points of banter as well as she thinks. Or as well as I had thought for that matter. I mean, isn't trading jibes in the middle of a fight supposed to be the hallmark of a good battle manga? Fucking casuals, I swear. But I suppose you had a point earlier about me using stuff that's supposed to be outside my ability. How can I damage control this? Hmmm, ah. Got it.]

He faces the crowd with a dramatic flair.

[I have ingested a special drug that was hidden in a fake tooth! This drug transforms my measly level 4 cloth teleport into an ability that can expand so much further! Instead of mere teleportation, I can make the distance I travel nonexistent! Do you fools understand!? With but I single step, I can appear miles away! I have made the instant transmission of a Super Saiyan a reality! With this, I can take over the world and dictate the color of a girl's underwear as I please! Fear me, lowly mortals! Fear me as I ascend to my planar form!]

"What!? That's still teleportation! And just what the hell does a planar form have to do with it!? What even IS a planar form!? Are you retarded!? Are you actually retarded!?"

Kumagawa disappears again and with several sounds of him rebounding from buildings, he comes within punching distance of Touma with his left fist cocked back.

[I don't want to hear that from a guy with brain damage!]

Touma barely dodges his head to the side as the punch blasts past him. He returns the attempt with a kick to Kumagawa's side that sends him airborne. In the middle of his flight, however, the smiling fool's form becomes erased from Touma's vision with more echoes of his boomeranging across the environment. The sound of something big and metal being snapped mixed into all that noise has the fake policeman leap backwards. A light-pole cracks the road apart where he had been standing. On the side of the pole, he saw his twisted doppelganger hanging with his feet planted onto it's surface. The instant before he could fade out of reality again, Touma swings his right fist out.

[Boof!]

And with that odd sound escaping Kumagawa due to getting socked right in the jaw, the fight was over.

Touma wastes no time in slapping handcuffs on him while he was on the ground. After hauling him to his feet, cuffed hands behind his back, he starts dragging him off as they had planned.

"It's alright everyone! I caught him so-"

"That was so cool!"

"Whoa, he handled that pervert like a pro. Did you see how he dodged all his attacks?"

"Doki doki."

Well, other than the last comment that was more of what Touma could interpret from the face of one of one of those girls, everyone was singing his praises on the swift removal of the criminal. He honestly felt very touched by their words in light of the past 45 minutes being chalk full of insults borne of things that weren't his fault. His eye's were starting to tear up from the sudden the appearance of fortune that blessed him then. Those feelings died with their next round of comments.

"But man, was that spiky-haired guy a true pervert to go so far just for a girl's underwear."

"Yeah and didn't he say it was because he had gotten a worthless power? What a loser."

"I doubt that I'll ever talk to guys with spiky hair because of him."

"I think that guy has even ruined the Sonic games I loved to play."

In front of him, Kumagawa stifles his hilarity for Touma's, presently, slighted trait but fails as the snorts and snickers come out anyway. Touma punches the back of his head in as sneaky a way of hiding his feelings as Kumagawa's had been and carries him off to the alleyway without a word.

After they had gone in far enough to be out of earshot of the people back on the street, Kumagawa relinquishes all control he had over his shit and promptly loses it as he laughs like a hyena.

[HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh my god! Oh my god! You'll never be able to attract a woman for the rest of your life! Hahahaha! Wait! Wait! You do have your trusty right hand at least! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!]

"I hate you so much right now."

[Haha! Hahahahahaha! Haaaaa. That's it? I thought you were about to go on some hour long tangent describing your anger. That dumb or just lazy?]

Touma gives a half-lidded look over at Kumagawa.

"...I'm not going to give you the satisfaction there but-"

[Oh, I wasn't talking to you just then but do go on. You've got my total and undivided inattention."

"That last part was intentional wasn't it?"

[Well yeah. Don't let that stop you though. It's a free country after all.]

"But it's not! It's a constitutional monarchy! I may be close to repeating a year but I know at least that much! We may have a lot more freedom than most but it definitely isn't a full on democracy!"

Kumagawa shrugs with his, now uncuffed, hands in the air.

[Whatever, commie, just keep your explanation rolling before I actually stop caring rather than just pretending like I don't.]

His fists clench until the knuckles become white and his arms shake.

"...Can I though? Is Kamijou-kun really allowed to explain himself now or will he be interrupted with that sarcastic bullshit again?"

[You talk in the third person when you get pissed off enough huh? Noted.]

He gives his uncaring audience some time for another smartassed remark before he actually tries talking.

"Like I was going to say, I decided against saying more because no words could fit my anger then or now. Besides, what is me ranting on like that going to accomplish? It's not like those words would actually hurt you since you're feeding off my frustration like a parasite and I can't really put my emotions into fists to get you to understand it either. You wouldn't care even if I killed you for it."

[Wrong. I have no interest in getting killed by a guy.]

Kumagawa had expect a more infuriated response but only a pair of enlarged eyes answers him.

[What?]

"...So it's a fetish for you then?"

[Wait, wh-]

"You use your power to get murdered by girls because that's your sick fetish. It all makes sense now!"

[I-no. No. It's not like tha-]

"Then why specify!? Why bother specifying the gender of who kills you if it wasn't like that!?"

[Look here sphincter, I only say that because I'm not attracted to guys. If I, as a red-blooded heterosexual member of Area 11, am going to die to someone, it may as well be to a beautiful girl. Or are you saying you prefer a guy to do it?]

"Don't try to avoid this. I point it out because I'm a regular guy that doesn't want to die at all! Whether it's a girl or guy, I don't like the concept of being dead!"

[Oh, come on! Do you know how many times I get killed on a daily basis? It's at least 12 on an off day. I don't like dying as much as you do but since I die so often, I've grown something of a preference on how I die. If I have the choice, why not have it be a cute girl?]

"Because of how oddly specific it is? I'm still unconvinced that isn't just your turn on."

[Whatever pervert boy. At least I have a better chance of getting with a cute girl than you. How does that feel, by the way? That a hopeless reject like me, with a falsely accused kink of being murdered, might just get with a girl that would make Leonardo Da Vinci cry in jealousy of her shear perfection while you'll just have that right hand to keep you company?]

"So what am I then, if not a cute girl?"

At some point, Misaki had returned but those two were so focused on insulting each other to notice her. Her appearance made the both of them jump but the one with the most fear on his face was Kumagawa.

[Mi-Misaki-chan! Of course I wasn't referring to you just now! That was more ah to anyone else in his life! Definitely am not referring to you at all! You totally deserve a happy death!]

"...What was that last line supposed to mean?"

[What? You mean the ' not referring to you' part?]

"You know which part, asshole."

[OHHHH. Well considering how you've been so uncaring for the bodies you borrow, I don't really see how you could have anything like a happy ending. Just saying.]

In moment of genuine surprise for Touma, he found himself agreeing with Kumagawa.

"You did say that I had groped you for 15 minutes and attempted to rape a lot of other girls in School Garden. Never mind tricking me into seeing the poor girl you possess naked."

"No, not attempted. You had impregnated at least 15 girls. Or that's what I told the girls that wanted to follow into the alleyway~."

"STOP ADDING ONTO MY ALREADY RUINED REPUTATION GODDAMNIT! AND WHY DO YOU HAVE TO SPECIFY IMPREGNATION WHEN IT COMES TO THIS ANYWAY!?"

Misaki tilts her head in mock confusion at his rage.

"Because it's funny?"

[Those were the famous last words of Shokuhou Misaki. She was later murdered by the infamous Japanese truck. Her death helped bring awareness to the countless souls cut short by it's unquenchable blood lust and thus, the government finally assembled all it's military might to bring down the savage beast. Thousands lost their lives in that war. It's tragedy only overshadowed by the Great Emu War. Shokuhou Misaki, we will never forget you.]

"...That's quite the epithet. But I somehow doubt that any of that will actually happen to me."

[You don't know. I don't know. Shut up.]

"Anyway, how much time is left?"

Touma checks his phone before he answers.

"Just one hour left. We got them off of my trail but we still need to find the magician before-"

[Uh, hey. What was that friend's name again? Wasn't it Tsuchimikado?]

"What does that have to do with anything?"

When he looks over at Kumagawa, he sees that he had a television app open to a news station. What appeared on the slow crawling ticker then caused his previous thoughts to crash and burn into nothingness.

"Breaking news of a fire in District 7. One room of a student dorm was partially destroyed in the fire. The single confirmed fatality was the room's resident, Tsuchimikado Maika-san. An investigation has begun to determine whether this was arson or an accident."

Kumagawa grimaces in frustration.

[Even when I'm right, it's all so wrong still.]

* * *

 **Hey everyone! Decided to cut this one a bit short from what I was initially writing since it was getting really long. I'm just having too much fun with the interactions between Kumagawa, Touma, and Misaki. Can't really go at length like I usually do since I don't really have that much time at the moment but expect another update by the weekend maybe. Could be sooner. Be sure to let me know in the reviews whether how I wrote Touma here is fine or not. I'm not too sure if I got his character down very well but I hope I did alright in that regard. Hope you guys enjoy this one. See you soon.  
**


	14. Chapter 14

A Chat At An Illegal Maid Cafe  
Setting_Matters_Straight

* * *

After seeing the news, Touma attempted to run off but Misaki had stopped him with a less than pure method while Kumagawa had afterwards convinced him that he needed to get information on all of this before he goes blind into the situation. After that, the two boys had gotten back in their original outfits and left the area before anyone could see them. They travel now, by way of back alleys and various other methods of subterfuge to the place Kumagawa had said they could gather their information from.

"...Did you really have to flash me your panties to stop me?"

"They're not mine so I don't see why I should care. Plus when you get that determined, it's about all anyone can do to stop you from throwing yourself into someone else's problem."

[Totally going to die a horrible death.]

"Yeah she is."

"What death isn't horrible~?"

[Old age. In your sleep. Being chased off a cliff by topless models. Just to name a few.]

Touma glances over at Kumagawa.

"And you really don't have a fetish for-"

[Are we really back on this? Your friend has gotten wrapped up in something that may or may not have resulted in his step-sister's death yet you want to waste the time you could spend on thinking of a way to help them on your silly delusions.]

"Wh- THIS WHOLE TIME YOU'VE BEEN WASTING TIME ON MEANINGLESS CONVERSATIONS!"

[Buuut, he's not _my_ friend. There's no reason for me to care about wasting time here.]

They were about at each others throats when Misaki swats the two of them with the replica baton she had. It had come with the other Anti Skill training equipment but she had decided to keep it for herself.

"Fighting with each other isn't going to help anything here. Are we close to that place you were talking about or did you really just want to waste his time to piss him off?"

[I'd like that but there are lives on the line! As an ally of the weak, I cannot ignore their cries! The entrance is just ahead though.]

"That's the biggest lie I've ever heard from you, I think."

[Put some more faith in me, Misaki-chan! This place will be perfect in letting us plan and rest up for our next move in all of this.]

Touma raises an eyebrow at that statement.

"Is it really safe? Won't it be a problem for me to be out in the open here?"

[Ah, that's the beauty of it Urchin-san! This is something of an underground place that males frequent as much as it's female clientele. It'll be fine.]

"Can you really still call me urchin? You used up all the gel before I could get to it. Wait. What is that kind of place doing in the middle of School Garden?"

The continual smile darkens in delight of variables known only to it's wearer.

[You mean, what _isn't_ a place like that doing here but I don't want to ruin the surprise. The suspense will keep things entertaining for awhile, I think.]

Both Misaki and Touma give each other worried looks, which only exacerbates his own worry threefold. After all, with how familiar they had been as well as the fact that Misaki ought to know this place more or less like the back of her hand, Touma had expected for her to have known about this place as well. Given that even she has no idea, it couldn't be good. But he has come to understand that Misaki at least was someone he could trust, if only because she had placed that same trust in him with the falsified situation with the Altar of the Wisdom King. Not to mention the fact that she had roped Kumagawa into helping out as well. For the time being, he has no choice but to go with the flow.

Kumagawa stops in front of a sewer grate, an oddity in this city where they had a majority of Academy City's sewage pipes narrowed down to sizes too small even for most rats. That didn't mean that they didn't exist at all. It was just that strange to see such an underground entrance fit for the average person in such a secretive place as School Garden

"Is this it? It seems….kind of suspicious."

At Touma's comment, Misaki bumps shoulders with him and grins at the dubious look he has.

"Yeah, I have to agree with the pervert on that one~."

"...I don't even have the energy to refute that anymore. I don't think I'll even care if this turns out to be some sort of set up. There's no way I could get any more or less aggravated by all this. I may have reached some kind of homeostasis with my frustrations at this whole thing. Let's just get it over with."

[Ohhhh! That's the kind of made-up apathy I was seeking to make here!]

"What are you talking about? This isn't 'made-up' for me!"

[So you say but that's just how you feel for the moment. That's the best thing about this misfortune of ours. We never realize just how bad things are until it's far, far, far too late.]

Kumagawa chuckles softly to himself and squats next to the grate as Touma cringes in preparation for what is to come. He rapidly knocks against the metal with 2 hits, then 6, 5, 6, 3, 4 and so on for the next 15 minutes, an odd scraping as he drags his fist against the metal at certain intervals. Once he finished, there came a quiet, expectant female voice from underneath the metal cover.

"What do you think of Touhou 6?"

The other two had absolutely no clue what was happening here. If they had a map detailing the situation and several months worth of classes on the subject itself, they'd still be as lost as they were now. But Kumagawa, as it ought to have been expected from an apparent patron, had exactly the right words for the situation as always.

[That game is shit.]

"...Why?"

The voice sounded slightly disappointed. Misaki was on the verge of just having one of the boys open it up so she could get a clear shot at whoever it was under there. She figured that Kumagawa had messed up the passphrase somehow and was about to make good on her plan so they could gain entrance when his next words stopped her dead in her tracks.

[Because I can't beat it and using the visible hit box patch is for scrubs.]

Just when they had thought they couldn't have been more out of their element, the opening of the sewer grate throws them from the Laniakea Supercluster and puts their understanding on a course for the edge of the observable universe.

[Hm? You guys coming along or what?]

Mechanically, they climb down the pipe, though not with out a few accidents on the way.

"GODDAMN IT! STOP TRICKING ME INTO SEEING THAT HAPLESS GIRL'S PANTIES ALREADY!"

[I AGREE! GIVE THAT PRIVILEGE TO ME! OR AT LEAST HAVE YOU BE THE ONE TO DROP ON ME! I DON'T WANT MANASS IN MY FACE!]

They turn to each other and glared at one another with hate enough to power a whole city block, much to the mischievous, body-snatcher's delight.

"BWAHAHAHAHA! Teasing you two is great~!"

"Umm, we should really get going or the Boss will get mad at me again..."

At the maid's suggestion, they move through the pitch black passage by way of an incredibly bright flashlight. However as they walk, Misaki questions that sudden descriptor that had slipped into the last sentence.

"So why are there girls in cosplay? That shouldn't even be something to be asked, considering you're involved, but somehow I doubt the School Garden would allow for there to be guys mingling with girls dressed like the demon maid girls from that ani-. Why in the hell do I know about that? No, never mind. You've seen that show before haven't you?"

[Well I won't answer questions you answered yourself but the Railroad Cafe was created with the purpose of allowing those from outside and within to gain experience with the opposite sex. Although, it's honestly the girls that benefit the most from this place.]

Touma narrows his eyes. To him, the whole thing sounded sinisterly illegal.

"How, exactly, is that?"

[Not the way you're thinking, that's for sure. The whole operation is only frowned upon in the eyes of the law in that there are dudes technically within a female only area. The girls are all completely consenting to the work and uniforms, the guys all have to be pre-screened by multiple tiers of vetting systems over the course of a month to ensure they aren't total bastards. It's totally legit. The reason why I said the girls get more out of it than the guys is because unlike them, who at least have a bit of experience with the opposite sex, the girls that work here have absolutely none due to the lives they led. They get to see what work is like _and_ how to deal with guys.]

Misaki's glasses shine from the dull lighting as she leans in between them to look directly at Kumagawa.

"That's quite the PR speech. But if that business about them vetting people was true, how are you allowed in here?"

[I know the owner. So does our deflated Urchin-san here.]

The ex-spiky haired boy frowns at this but with every degree the corners of his mouth droop is multiplied several times over in just how high up the other boy's go in the opposite direction.

It wasn't long until they came to an inexplicably placed doorway with a set of heavy looking, wooden doors. It gave off the appearance of an entrance to a dungeon more than a cafe of any conventional kind. As the maid gets to a certain point before the door, they slowly open up all on their own.

[They're just triggered by the tailor-made icey chips in their uniforms. It's all a part of the ambiance.]

A hand goes to slap the face of it's exasperated, male owner.

"You meant IC chips."

[Yeah, that's what I said.]

"I just get the feeling that you said 'icey', like some kind of description for cold weather, instead of IC."

[They both come in chip form of some kind or the other. Jeeze, stop splitting hairs already and bask in the glory that is the Railroad Cafe!]

They step through the doors and into the blinding light. What awaited their adjusted eyes was quite the spectacle. Girls dressed as various characters from popular anime or manga were gracefully going from table to table as they handle the guest's requests. Touma had to admit, there was something of a classier atmosphere here. Though that had to be because of the employees themselves rather than the clothes they wore.

It was fairly spacious inside compared to the cramped tunnel to the cafe. This place may have been some kind of through-way that was converted into the restaurant reminiscent of old European architecture, perhaps to call to mind that it's workers and patrons were in fact in School Garden. Although, it was rather odd that it had been done so well. Only someone with great assets and resources could have handled the conversion so well.

As per usual, unfortunately, Kumagawa is the one that takes the calming mood and dashes it's fragile body against the ground.

[LADIES, LADIES, LADIES! KUSO-SAMA AND PROFESSOR M ARE IN THE HIZZLE!]

Everyone turns toward his shout. Kumagawa stands there with a blank expression before a light bulb sputters on above his head as he slightly gestures at Touma.

[Oh and this other dude too I guess. He's not that important. Oh shit, BLAU!]

As he waves frantically at someone off in the distance away from where they stood, Touma glances over with mild disinterest. Or at least that was until he saw who it was.

"Blau?...Wait, AOGAMI!?"

Once Aogami Pierce, the one whose 1st place position for biggest pervert was being contested currently, had glimpsed Touma's face, he made an odd noise before swinging his head away from his piercing glare and redirects a portion of it at Kumagawa before taking him around a corner.

"Hey uh Misogi? Bud? What's Kami-yan doing here?"

Aogami whispers at a rushed tone but Kumagawa, being one ever without tact, talks at exactly the level needed for anyone to hear normally.

[It's funny, ain't it?]

"NO DUDE! I'VE PREPARED FOR MID-BOSSES FROM ANTI-SKILL OR JUDGMENT BEING THROWN OUR WAY BUT YOU'VE GONE AND SENT IN THE FINAL BOSS! HE'LL RUIN OUR OASIS, MAN! HE'LL STEAL ALL THE GIRLS FOR HIMSELF WHEN HE GOES TO SHUT US DOWN!"

[Nah, he's got too much to worry about to deal with this right now. Don't worry so much!]

"...And what about when it's done?"

Kumagawa tilts his head in impish confusion.

[Wha?]

"When whatever stuff he's got going on with adding that bookish girl to his harem is done, _what then_?"

[...Dunno lol? Pretty sure she's already in his harem though anyway.]

With his mocking smile and shrugged shoulders, Aogami loses it.

"AHHHHHH! I KNEW I NEVER SHOULD HAVE LET SUCH A CLOSED-MINDED BASTARD INTO MY PARADISE! DIE YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"

[SCUM HAS NO RIGHT TO CALL OTHERS SCUM! THIS GARDEN OF EDEN IS WASTED ON INSECTS LIKE YOU! YOU'LL DIE FOR YOUR HERETICAL BELIEFS!]

Before these near deity level perverts could fight, a flying baton ricochets off of Kumagawa's head and into Aogami's. Misaki picks up the non-lethal weapon where it had lay as the two had just rubbed the pain away from their foreheads enough for semi-cognitive thought.

"Okay, what is this idiocy about? Just as a reminder, I still have half a mind to expose this place to Anti-Skill so they can shut it all down."

At her statement, the proprietor of the establishment broke down into tears

"ANYTHING BUT THAT! PLEASE! This, this is all I have."

Kumagawa slaps a hand on the shoulder of his deviant comrade.

[Haaaah. Crocodile tears won't work on this one, scum.]

"Wha- She's that high level, you piece of shit!?"

Despite the insults, there was no hostility between them. It was like watching master artisans at their craft. If, that is, being a fool counted as a craft.

"Are you even really fighting anymore? Whatever, it's probably over something completely stu-"

[This scumbag among scumbags is a pederast!]

"Says the lolicon!"

[So are you, fucker! At least I can differentiate between what is female and what isn't!]

"IF IT'S CUTE, THEN IT DOESN'T MATTER! AS LONG AS I KEEP MY INTERESTS AT THE 2ND DIMENSION, IT DOESN'T MATTER!"

[IT'S STILL GAY IF THERE'S A PENIS INVOLVED NO MATTER WHAT DIMENSION YOU LOOK AT IT FROM, YOU COCKSMOKING MONGOLOID!]

"Wait, wait, wait."

Misaki gestures to her baton.

"This is the talking stick. If I want to hear you talk, I point it at you so you can spill the bullshit out of your ill-used mouths. If it's not pointed at you and you talk, I hit you with this. Ok?"

The two look at one another before arriving at the same conclusion when they look back at her, all smiles.

"Do I have to pay for that!?"

[Do I have to pay for that!?]

For a moment it seemed like she was about to explode but after a long sigh, she looks at the two perverts and smiles sadistically.

"...Let me revise my previous statement~."

Misaki jams the end of the baton into Kumagawa's mouth before switching to Aogami's and then back to Kumagawa's.

[ECH! AH GOD! WHAT THE HELL!]

"I DON'T WANT SOME PERVERT'S SPIT IN MY MOUTH!"

"...I won't bother with that last comment. You, blue hair, talk. Keep it short or I'll just start poking around other holes."

Aogami goes completely pale with fear at her casually said threat to his rear.

"Th-that's just an exit lady! I don't want to awaken to some new fetish like that! What the hell is with this woman, Misogi!? How is her appearance such a decept-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Alrightalrightalright! Just...get the stick away please."

Misaki obliges his request but starts tapping it against the wall impatiently with her free hand at her hip.

"So uh when he and I met, we clearly hit it off pretty well. I mean our tastes coincide for the most part with the exception of uh-"

The baton jabs just underneath Kumagawa's nose with a flash.

[The misguided notion that sexual genitalia can be disregarded if it's 'cute.']

"Are you seriously telling me that you wouldn't go after a crossdressing boy that is a girl in every way but the penis!?"

Misaki whirls around on him and holds him to the wall as she threatens to stick the metal rod into his left nostril.

"I think I'll have you taste each other's snot and boogers for that comment~. Also, no matter how you look at the situation you painted for us, there's still a shared set of tools between the two of you. No matter how prettied up you make it, it still leaves your sexuality in question."

[HA!]

Any sign that Kumagawa had made that short exhale of vindication was erased before Misaki's withering stare fell on him. She holds that look for a minute before looking back at Aogami.

"This? All of what you two are talking about? Completely retarded. I was in a good mood before I had to sit and watch that idiot knock on a sewer grate for 15 full minutes. After we got down into the tunnel, I was only mildly frustrated when Kumagawa told me what all this was. Mildly, for the fact that this cafe thing is just begging to have some darker underground elements take over right next to where I sleep and go to school. That can be handled by Kumagawa though. I can trust that much to him. But having to sit here and mediate this, this, I don't even have words for how dumb this is! You are literally arguing over whether, as men, liking cute boys is gay or not! BOYS!"

"...Well in America there's a movement for-"

"What country are we in?"

"Right."

"I don't care if you're gay or not. You want to lust over men, then fine."

Aogami opens his mouth for but a second before Misaki slams the baton underneath his jaw to close it.

"Correct me and I _will_ use all of my power to completely erase that perversion from your head and replace it with the thoughts of big burly men. ...My point here, Aogami-san, is I don't care about any of this at all! At this point, all I want to do is wipe my hands clean of this whole thing. Preferably with napalm."

She retracts the baton into it's collapsible form as she smiles sweetly.

"Now, can we get a table here please~?"

"Y-yes! Yes, ma'am! GET THESE PEOPLE A TABLE! NOW!"

Maids scramble about as they find them just as Misaki had ordered. They get seated against the wall in one of the booths, have their orders taken, and water served within the span of two minutes. Their professionalism nearly rivaled that of many of the maid schools here in the city.

Kumagawa sits by himself on one side while Touma and Misaki are on the other. The whole time, both boys had been glancing over at one another with a mixture of surprise, confusion, and a dash of fear.

[Uh, I know what you usually say at times like this but I kinda feel-]

"Only kinda~?"

Despite it being said in that alluring voice, Kumagawa's veins grow cold at the sound. But before he could start scrambling for his nerves, Misaki sighs in exhaustion.

"I get that it's in your personality and all but this really isn't the sort of world that can put it's problems on hold for your jokes. I get that your world did allow for that but right now, as we've been messing around, Touma's friend is in trouble. I know you don't care. I don't expect you to just let go of that anger at him overnight because I say so but there's more going on here than your feud with him. I'm also at fault here for allowing all of it to happen but...well, I'm just as selfish as you on that one. Just for...opposite reasons."

She stands up and begins to walk off before Touma speaks up.

"W-wait. Where are you going by yourself? You're pretty tired right? I don't really get what happened and I do have my own problems but if the ones helping me run themselves ragged just for me-"

Misaki turns with a smile. Her laugh, albeit tired, was sweet on the ears.

"Haha. I'm just going to the bathroom to freshen up a bit. Just...talk with each other a bit. Try to understand each other a little bit so we won't have to worry as much about the two of you fighting so often."

Touma sits back down as she approaches a maid for directions. His fists clench slightly as his expression becomes heavy.

[...Don't let it worry you. It's all my fault anyway.]

"...I'm surprised you would take the blame for that one."

[Yeah, well. I did make an ass out of myself back there. Which isn't really anything too special but I think I wore down on Misaki-chan's last nerve so I'll try to get a little bit more serious about all this.]

"So what should we talk about? I assume you want to wait on the planning until Misaki-san comes back?"

[Yeah. It'd be better to do this as a slightly dysfunctional team than as...whatever this is.]

"Right."

A long, awkward silence separates the two for what felt like an eternity.

"...Why do you hate me so much?"

Kumagawa, his mind light-years away, takes half as long to respond.

[Hate? Nah, I'm just not very excited that you continue to live. Well...it's got more to do with how you act. If you really want to know.]

"How I act?"

[You're just so self-righteous and assertive in believing that you're so unfortunate. It bothers me.]

"Okay. Care to elaborate there?"

Kumagawa shifts awkwardly in his seat as he tries to find a way out of it but when he finds none, he looks over at Touma with half-lidded eyes.

[...We'll just wind up fighting over it you know.]

"Maybe. But it's better to get this out of the way now than later."

Kumagawa sighs as he ruffles his head around in defeat.

[Fine then. To the first point, you seem to have the habit of just butting your head into all these situations without ever actually thinking about what will happen to everyone involved. You just wave it off as being your 'instinct' to help someone and that you don't need a reason to help someone but that's just completely wrong on so many levels. What if you save someone that turns around and kills everyone? As in the entire planet, straight up extinction level stuff. You definitely can't deny that sort of thing happening with what's been going on here.]

Touma blinks at the question for awhile before coming to his conclusion.

"...I'd-"

[Stop them? Seriously? As in, after the fact of you saving them when the whole thing could have been avoided by letting them die?]

"Yes."

[That's just reckless.]

"And you aren't the same? Misaki-san has been over it already but you really have been fooling around too much when it comes to the serious situations. Maybe it's different for a guy that can ignore death in whatever manner you do it in but when it comes to anyone else, we take life and death as serious as can be. Could someone I save become someone as horrible as that? I don't think so. Nobody is so bad at their core that they'll waste the second chance they've been given to redeem themselves."

[THAT! That right there is what I was talking about! Stop talking like you know everything there is to know! Eventually someone will come that is such an irredeemable, stubborn bastard that you won't be able to do anything for them! Sure, knock him out but what about afterwards!? Would, whoever it is, really be okay with just ditching their plans for your ideology!? Just for a single right handed punch!?]

"How could anyone think of me as a know-it-all!? Aren't you just going right back to being a hypocrite!? And there's no such thing as someone so 2 dimensionally evil as that! That's just something stupid out of some damn manga!"

Kumagawa sighs once more.

[What did I say? We're fighting over it. We should stop this or we might end up destroying this place. Well not really 'we' but you get what I mean.]

Another awkward silence as the two try to think of some way to pass the time but such a topic as they had touch on wasn't something so easy to shake from their minds. Touma is the one to voice as much first.

"...So what did you mean, me believing that I'm unfortunate?"

Kumagawa had been taking a sip of water and slammed the glass onto the wood table with an exasperated roll of the eyes.

[Oh hell.]

"I don't like having to deal with this any more than you but if neither of us knows at least where the other is coming from, we'll just keep snapping at each other. If we're going to work together, we need to know each other better. If only to let us bring the hate down to just tolerance."

He had his head pointed at the ceiling as Touma spoke but there was no way out of the situation to be found in the odd patterns that dotted across the textures up there so Kumagawa looks back at Touma to continue the conversation.

[...I suppose you have a point. Tell me then, just what is it about your life so far that has you believing that your misfortune is so overwhelming? Because of the fights you get into? That's your fault.]

"I'll take the blame where it's due but it affects more than just that, you know."

[Oh what? You referring to the little shit?]

"Little? I guess but it's a lot of little things snowballing into an avalanche on my life because of my right hand."

[That shitstorm isn't a result of bad luck as much as it is an absence of luck.]

Touma scratches at his head.

"Uh, Kamijou-kun doesn't understand these things."

[Look, you say you have bad luck because that hand neutralizes the good luck right?]

"Right."

[But that doesn't even make sense! How could it erase the good luck but not the bad luck? Have you ever run into some kind of magician that can fire off stuff that you can't negate at all? Your hand hasn't been so selective in what it erases and what it doesn't before now so why would it over something like that?]

"...That is true actually but how else could you explain all of this?"

[I'd say that it's because you have no luck to protect you from these bad events.]

"Sounds a lot like bad luck to me."

[It could be confused for it but when you consider how things have usually turned out for those events you dive into, there's no way you'd have bad luck. For you, there's just a null value for your luck rather than a positive or a negative. You have had outstanding support, there hasn't been any kind of fuck ups that are totally irreversible, and you haven't experienced any sort of major loss. If you were to look at just that, you've been particularly blessed. It's the same with all the bad stuff that happens. You just happen to have a fucked up perspective. Well, not that I can really talk but all the same it bugs that you can claim to be so misfortunate without being actually misfortunate.]

Touma, as much as he wanted to, couldn't find himself disagreeing with him. If good luck really was the blessings of God, then wouldn't that make bad luck God's curses? Taking that into account, the value of luck he has should be perpetually set at 0, just as Kumagawa had said. But even if he was right on many accounts, Touma's experience tells him that Kumagawa still had several things wrong with his argument.

"What you say isn't wrong but it's still not right."

[How do you figure?]

Touma smiles wryly as he spills his thoughts about his misfortune out.

"You are right that I've been blessed with so many people to help me. But that isn't something I outright rely on. Most of the time, I'm alone when it comes to my fights. If I was really so blessed, then there's no way I couldn't have just won those fights without breaking a sweat. They usually wind up with me in the hospital even in the best of cases. But that still doesn't mean I have no good or bad luck. It's just that the bad outweighs the good on an average day. Besides, there are still quite a bit of aspects in my life that I live with that are a direct result of my misfortune."

[Your memory loss?]

"What!?"

[Ah. Suppose I shouldn't have said that so casually but, yeah. I'm aware of it due to having shared memories with Misaki-chan.]

Touma struggles for a time to find his voice but even he does use it, it shook as he spoke.

"...So she knows too then."

[Well, that situation is more complicated than what you're thinking of but...it's not my business to talk about it.]

"I see. I guess that's why she's been so familiar with me. I assumed that she knew me but I didn't know it extended to when I saved Index."

[Wait, Index? What's that?]

He honestly couldn't tell whether or not Kumagawa was lying. That cackling Minus would be the sort to ruin a serious conversation with a tasteless joke.

"..."

[100% serious right now man. I think, somehow, we're talking about totally different things.]

"Then...I've lost my memory before that time as well?"

[Apparently.]

"Shouldn't that prove even more that I have bad luck? I can't remember anything about my past. The birthdays I've had with my parents. My first day of school. It's all gone. When I went to visit my parents, they were more like strangers to me than anything else. How isn't that bad luck?"

[...In many ways, that could've been better for you than you know. How do you know your past wasn't totally shitty? Not knowing your parents is pretty bad but at least you can start over without those bad memories.]

"Maybe. Maybe but even if they were that horrible, they were my memories all the same. For better or worse...I would rather have them."

The conversation stalls as their food gets to them. Kumagawa and Touma had gotten chicken curry with rice while Misaki had a small slice of cake. She still wasn't around though so they waited for her return so they could all eat together. Kumagawa, meanwhile, has come back from being lost in his thoughts.

[...Want them back?]

Touma's eyes widen at the offer.

"You'd do that?"

Kumagawa laughs at Touma's suspicion.

[It's interesting that you'd question that I would do it rather than whether I can. Regardless, Misaki-chan may want you regain your memories of her on your own, and I was respecting that wish, but this has grown bigger than that. I can use All Fiction to bring those memories back for you. Though it wouldn't be for you.]

"I wouldn't have expected you to do anything for me but...no thanks. I've made my peace with not having those memories. Besides, having them back would only distract me from saving Tsuchimikado."

[Alright, can't say I didn't offer. But as far as the luck is concerned...]

"Agree to disagree?"

[Yeah. Suppose so.]

"At least we've come to some sort of understanding though."

[I guess.]

A growl from Kumagawa's side of the table punctuates the end of his sentence.

[Misaki-chan is taking too long. Must be a hearty dump she's taking. Mind if I start eating?]

"...As long as you don't talk any more about what she may be doing in there, I won't mind."

[Kay~.]

He begins by stirring up the curry into the rice, making the presentable dish near unrecognizable from what it really was.

"So you're the sort that mixes it in huh."

[Yeah, people like to say that the rice loses it's flavor that way but since when the hell has rice had flavor anyway?]

He takes a giant spoonful in and immediately is stricken with a look of pure bliss. The display, as well as the aroma from his own plate, had left Touma feeling particularly hungry himself but he refrains for Misaki's sake.

"That good?"

[Mmohnyah! Ifsrearrygoo!]

Unfortunately despite his ancestry, Touma wasn't much for see food. To put the sight out of his mind, he decides to put their conversation on a relatively safe topic.

"So uh you have money trouble too right?"

Kumagawa swallows his food before responding.

[Why do you ask?]

"I'm so sick of not having money but all this craziness barely gives me enough time for school let alone a part time job. The allowance I get doesn't really cover the...current living expenses."

[Huh. What do you blow your money on?]

"...Food."

[Have you considered, I don't know, not eating everything in sight?]

"My problem is that I'm not really the one to suggest that to. There's someone else living with me and honestly rooming with a black hole might be better for my wallet at this point. Though, I thought you had gathered information on me. Why don't you already know about it?"

[It's not like people keep track of those sorts of minute details. Or at least my sources don't. Or if they mentioned something like that, I wasn't listening. Honestly the second probability there seems the most likely. But this bottomless void can't get a job?]

"She has some circumstances about her living with me so, no. She can't."

[Hm.]

"Well...do you have any ideas? You seem to be more or less in a similar situation and all."

[Huhhhhhhuh. Have you tried contracted feces farming?]

Several patrons of the cafe drop their silverware at this comment. It wasn't long before the typical noises of the restaurant pick back up. Though the conversations around them sounded rather like they were being forced to get their minds off the topic they had hoped was just in their imagination. Touma himself was of that same mindset but there wasn't really any way for him to get out of it.

"...I uh...I really don't think that I heard you right."

[Contracted feces farming.]

Some customers start calling for their checks midst the sound of even more metal clattering onto tables.

"No, I heard that. I was just hoping reality might just give me a miracle this one time. But um...like to scientific research or..."

[Nope it goes to ordure connoisseurs.]

Touma, now realizing that he had chosen the topic poorly, tries to salvage what he can out it by attempting to make Kumagawa see what he was doing to everyone else.

"Um, Kamijou-kun doesn't get small, difficult words like that. So, OH. You mean hors d'oeuvre connoisseurs right? Right!?"

Kumagawa points at Touma with his spoon.

[Nah I'm talking about people paying to eat feces. To devour scat. To imbibe poo. To gobble caca. To-]

His words are drowned out over the clamor of customers, desperate for their checks to come to release them from this torment. Touma had no choice but to envy them for their ability to escape from it but was also seriously questioning his previous doubts about his luck.

"We get the point. Please. Have mercy. Is this revenge for making you talk about why you hate me?"

Kumagawa puts in another spoonful of the brown mixture and sends it to his stomach in no time at all.

[It pays well but it's a bit harsh. Though at least they'll pay for your diet itself, since that is the deciding factor of the quality the buyer wishes for, so it'd be like knocking out two birds with one stone!]

"Why did you ignore my question!? How can you still eat while you talk about this!? Hell, how could you go around acting like you're so much better than Aogami when you're even worse in the head!?"

[What're you talking about? He's the one that suggested it to me.]

"HE ATE YOUR-"

[No, no! Questionable sexuality notwithstanding, he draws the line at any 2D boy older than 12. Says the androgyny is lost at that point or something. Freaking weirdo.]

"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT WITH A STRAIGHT FACE!?"

[Anyway, it did take me like a month to adjust to the diet they put you on so it really isn't viable for a guy like you that needs the money so badly.]

"YOU'VE DONE THIS BEFORE!?"

[Yeah? Wait. Don't tell me you're actually interested in eat-]

Touma rolls up his sleeve as he puts a butter knife against his right arm.

"One more word about feces, scat, poo, caca, or whatever and I'll start sawing off my right arm with this."

If only he had seen more foreign movies, Touma would realize that in his eyes was the steely glare of the Man with No Name. The people around them hold their collective breath as they bear witness to their would-be hero's last stand against the monster that threatened their stomachs. The tension in the air could be cut with the knife he holds. Finally, Kumagawa appears to back down as he looks away from Touma.

[...Tch, shit.]

The boy that had fought Archangels, Saints, powerful espers, and a myriad of other monstrosities, fervently scrapes at his shoulder with that dull utensil to escape from Kumagawa's madness.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

[HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HE'S REALLY DOING IT! THE ABSOLUTE MADMAN!]

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGODDAMNITALL!"

The knife smashes onto the table's surface as he loses his nerve.

[HA! Knew you wouldn't have the balls! Oh, by the way, what's up with that arm anyway? I asked Blau about it and he didn't know anything about that weirdness that came out of that thing.]

Touma wasn't too keen to talk about that topic either but if it would get him to move on from the previous conversation, he was more than willing.

"...Can't say I really know myself. It isn't really something I can rely on so I haven't bothered with it."

Kumagawa points at Touma again with his utensil in between bites.

[Why the hell not? Let me tell you something, I can see weakness in everything due to me being such a loser.]

"I don't know if that's really something to be proud of but, you gained that power from losing? How does that even make sense?"

[Well, it isn't necessarily literal. It's sorta like that precog bullshit you have. As long as I don't think too hard about it, I can get a sense of where to hit things the hardest to make the most damage. I've only seen one other person that didn't have any kind of weaknesses in them before I saw that force come from your torn arm. That's why I ran from it. It was too weird for me to understand. Not even I am so stupid as to go up against something like that without more information on it.]

"Which is why you met with Aogami then. Sorry but considering my arm has to be ripped off for it to work in the first place, I'd rather not have to use it at all if I can help it."

[Who said that you have to be sans an arm to use it? It might be something that can come out of it's own accord if you train it enough.]

"Maybe but, if it's something that has to be leveled up from me getting my arm torn off, I'd rather just use Imagine Breaker. Besides, with everything else that has been happening, I really don't have the time to be worrying about something like that."

Kumagawa sighs as he rubs his forehead.

[You could have some OP godslaying ability in there and you let it waste away because you're too chicken to do anything with it.]

Following suit in terms of expressing his feelings on the matter, Touma crosses his arms.

"That honestly might be true. Such misfortune."

[Disregard our previous truce on the argument regarding your luck. I can't accept any of that shit about being unlucky when I'm around.]

"What? Who made you the expert on misfortune?"

[I'd daresay that I'm the most unfortunate person in existence.]

"Yeah? Well, do you have some freeloading glutton that hogs your bed, basically forces you to sleep in your bathtub so she won't crawl into bed with you, and bites on your head when she's pissed off at you over some random misunderstanding?"

[What the hell? How is any of that a bad thing? Oh wait, you're the typically dense as shit harem protagonist. Of course you'd be so adverse to threats against your virginity.]

"Oi. Pretty sure you're a virgin yourself, bastard."

[So what? At least I can tell when a girl is in love with me…well that is if any were to fall for me but still.]

"...It's not like I can't see that she probably feels something for me. If she does, it's for the me before I lost my memory. It would feel too much like I was taking advantage of being in the body of someone else that she loves if I were to return her feelings."

[That sucks but it's still nothing next to my shitty luck. No matter what the game or rules, it's literally impossible for me to win any game or fight.]

"How does that even compare?"

[Every. Fight. I lose. No matter the effort. I could lose a coin toss game even if it was flipped 10,000 times. Now apply that sort of shitty luck to your entire little blip of a life. What do you got now, sphincter?]

"I literally get no time for rest anymore in between these near daily events. The one time I was allowed a vacation, I spent the first few hours being completely lost and the rest was wasted on having to fight off some Roman Catholic magicians that were going to destroy Academy City. That's the sort of bad luck that haunts me."

[I tripped over a crack in the road and faceplanted into some dog shit the other day.]

"I pulled out my wallet so I could use my card at the ATM and a bird flew down to steal it from my hands. When I tried chasing it, it doubled back in the air just to crap on me."

They continued to trade their horror stories long after Misaki had returned, seemingly ignorant of her coming back. In reality, she had only been gone for 10 to 15 minutes but their debate had lasted now for well over half an hour as she watched them from her spot next to Touma. She had considered interrupting but much like a train wreck, it was hard to resist the urge to hear of their damnable luck.

It ranged from small things like getting mistaken for a criminal or waking to see their homework that they stayed up all night to finish being set aflame and only grew in magnitude until they were comparing nearly losing their lives in world wars and actually losing their lives over and over and over again.

After a whole hour of deliberation over the matter, the two experts on misfortune sit in silence as they stare at each other. Misaki opens her mouth to break the silence but Touma beats her to the punch.

"Can't say all of what you said was just poor luck when at least half of it was your fault."

[I can say the same to you.]

"True. We're both pretty luckless when it comes down to it."

[I hate to admit that you can even be considered in the same ballpark as me but you're right. This luck of ours is so shifty that we aren't even allowed to entirely blame it for the bad things in life. That Miss Fortune is one crafty bitch huh?]

"Yep."

[You know that I still haven't acknowledged your luck as being on par with mine, right?]

"Yep."

[But...It's still pretty shitty. I can't even think of anything more to convince myself that you can't even be compared to me in unluckiness. I really hate this kind of an unsatisfactory ending.]

"...Yep."

Sighs escape their mouths as they both utter their concluding statements on the whole affair.

"Such misfortune."

[Couldn't win again.]

As they hear each other's old catchphrases, they eye one another for awhile. Misaki was sure that a fight might happen but before she could do anything, Touma reaches his right hand out. Kumagawa, meanwhile, just stares at it. But even so, the hand continues to be offered. Finally, Kumagawa tentatively grasps the hand and shakes it.

"...I'm surprised you didn't poof right out of existence. Oh but I guess he did punch you with that hand earlier huh?"

[WHOA! When did you get back, Misaki-chan?]

"Awhile ago. The discussion you two were having was just too interesting to ignore~."

Touma scratches his head awkwardly as he looks over at the girl next to him.

"Yeah, well, it was good to come to terms with him. If only a little bi-OW!"

As he was talking, he felt a sharp blow to his shin underneath the table. When he looks over to the prime suspect, there was nothing unremarkable going on with Kumagawa's face. To clarify, it was as if he hadn't even done anything to begin with. But then he notices something in his eyes. It was like he was trying to tell Touma something but he wasn't quite getting why or what he wanted to tell him. Misaki sighs heavily at the exchange.

"I appreciate you trying to cover for him for my sake but I know you too well for you to hide anything and I had already suspected that he might forget again before I could come back to you two."

"W-wait, forget? What-"

[She knows you don't remember her by now. It has been long, long after half an hour. Ah, well I guess that was more to our conversation so I don't really know if you remember but...screw it, you lost your memory of her before the incident with your headcrab.]

"Head...crab? Wait, never mind that."

Touma turns half his body to Misaki.

"You know about...my memory loss?"

"Yes I-hang on. Did it extend to more than just me? Do you remember nothing about your life?"

"I-"

A tap to the shin. This time, much subtler than the last. He looks sidelong, for but an instant, at Kumagawa. He was nibbling at what was left of his stirred up curry rice but no signs of anything registered in those dull eyes. Touma looks back at Misaki's genuinely worried face before coming to his answer.

"I remember everything else it's just...this is a lot to take in."

Misaki seems to take that statement in for a moment to process it before exhaling in relief.

"That's good~. As I was saying, I do know about your memory loss since it concerns me but...I'd rather you just figure those details out on your own without any outside intervention. But we aren't here to talk about either of your brain problems despite how much you two seem to take pleasure in discussing it~."

Her comment that attacked the two on entirely separate levels has both boys scream totally different things with the same feelings behind the words.

"DIDN'T YOU WANT TO STOP THE FIGHTING!?"

[DO YOU WANT ME TO HUNT AFTER YOUR REAL BODY SO I CAN GIVE THIS GUY YOUR ACTUAL PANTIES!?]

"PFFTHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ohhhh boy! It really is fun to rile you two up like this but we should really move onto what we came here for to begin with."

[I officially retract my apology to you for wasting time. You acted SOOOO tired of my shit and here you are doing the same exact things I was doing. Do you just not think that I won't put all of this on hold just to slap those panties of yours onto this nerd's face? Are you challenging me woman? Because I will tear this city apart just to embarrass you.]

"Come on, do you really need me to tell you to learn how to take a joke? Besides, I told you that I was being hypocritical about all this anyway."

[Whatever. Suppose I'll just have to look past that side of you as a fellow hypocrite. I assume you weren't in there just taking a dump right?]

The other side of the table takes an instant hit of mental stress. For different reasons but the quantity as well as quality was at the same level for both of them.

"If I we're closer, I'd smash that grin of yours into your curry. But yes. I was making some phone calls so I could gather information while you two hashed out your issues."

As he had just been hit with a light dose of PTSD from Kumagawa's words, Touma couldn't work much of an appetite up for the food in front of him and so he sadly pushes the dish away from him as he looks over at Misaki.

"Did you find out where Tsuchimikado is?"

"Something like that. The easiest way to find him is to try to figure out his motive for doing all this...which is incredibly hard to figure out just with what we know. So I decided to look for anyone strange trying to confirm the death of his sister since keeping you away from the apartment fire might have been another reason to send you here on a wild goose chase."

"...Because I would have saved her? That doesn't-"

"Make any kind of sense at all. Of course. That is, as long as she really did burn up in that fire."

Touma's eyes go wide with a double dose of disbelief and realization.

"Yeah. If he wanted to protect her, he would make it look as though she had gotten killed already by someone else. That would throw off any assassins and the like. If I was there, I probably would have run right in there and found whatever he planned on having go up in flames with the rest of his place. But there's no way something like that could last as a cover. He's spent too much of his effort into keeping her away from all that to send her out of the city, never mind the fact that he wouldn't be able to do anything to help her if they saw through all that and sent someone after her."

Kumagawa wipes the corners of his mouth upon completion of his lunch.

[Then would anyone care about her if that Tsuchimikado guy was to die?]

Touma whips his head around to him as he continues with the same smile as usual.

[The only reason why anyone wants her dead is because they can use that to control him so if he dies, then she no longer has any value to these shady people right? He only needs enough time to figure out who was going to kill her. After he's gotten his revenge on those people, he won't really need to live anymore will he?]

"He wouldn't just abandon Maika like that!"

[Well, maybe he isn't quite that suicidal but that's not really what I'm trying to get at. I mean, he has already abandoned her hasn't he? He likely fed her some lies and sent her somewhere safe, remote, yet also close enough for him to come running in case they did catch on but otherwise, he's just going to treat her like a mushroom in this situation. He'll feed her shit and keep her in the dark all for the sake of revenge. Isn't that completely backwards if he was really trying to protect her?]

"...If he's that cornered, he wouldn't think so clearly as that. Is that your point?"

[Yep! Give the man a cookie!]

"What does that prove? Why wouldn't he get that kind of pressure when someone close to him is being threatened?"

[Because you aren't facing off against Tsuchimikado the double agent man of mystery. This is a man that would fake the death of a loved one just to beat their assassins to the punch so he can hunt them down himself. You are stepping in the way of a brother's rage against the ones that would kill his sister.]

"I just want to stop him before he gets himself killed or otherwise falls into a pit he can't get out of."

[Sure, sure. But by doing that, you give the other side the time necessary to do whatever they wish. Should you really be stopping him? They might catch onto his lies and find the sister you know? That and there's whatever is going on that they felt the need to try to silence such a guy by going after the one person they shouldn't.]

"He might not be rational right now when it comes to his personal safety but I have no doubt that he did everything in his power to ensure Maika stays safe. If only so he can let his rage out on whoever is behind this. As soon as we save him, we can just finish putting a stop to whatever Tsuchimikado was looking into. I'm going to choose to trust in his skill."

Kumagawa sighs at those words and looks over at Misaki.

[I hate that power of friendship crap. I really do.]

"That's how he is so you might as well get used to it~. Now if that conversation is done, I found out from some more computer savvy friends of mine that there was someone stalking the news sites and this same someone had managed to get into the Anti-Skill networks to try to follow the corpse to the morgue."

She passes a piece of paper with an address on it to Touma.

"How do they know it was the same person? Could be someone unrelated to this like a journalist."

"Look, my sources are credible here-"

Kumagawa leans over the table, to point where half his body was over it, to whisper loudly in Touma's ear.

[Hey, I'm pretty sure those sources of hers just used a whole bunch of hacker jargon that she couldn't understand so she's trying to cover up by acting all big and confident.]

"T-that's not true at all! I understand plenty of what they say! For example, they don't like being called hackers and in fact prefer the term crackers."

"...Isn't that only because they insist on it when you call them hackers?"

"...A-anyway! My point is, you can get more information from whomever is being sent down there to confirm Maika's death. They're sure to be there considering they know that it wasn't them who did it. You two should head down there and see what you can get."

[Uh, us _two_? What about this whole Three Amigos thing we had going on here?]

"Don't worry. I'm going to keep helping from the background but it would be better for us both if we split things up like this. I can look more into the situation from the back while the two of you handle that front line stuff. To borrow a bit of your knowledge, you wouldn't want the mage up in the front row when her HP is so much lower than the warriors.

The two in question look over at each other dubiously before Kumagawa sighs and gets up from his side of the table.

[Alrighty then. Let's get going, Ocean Man.]

"...These nicknames just keep evolving don't they?"

"Well, that's just him trying to find one he likes. He'll get there eventually but he'll be a bit slow in regards to that."

The other side stands as well.

"Oh, should we trade phone numbers? Wait...I don't have it already do I?"

"So insensitive~. But no. I do have your number though so I'll just call you in case anything comes up. Kumagawa should already have mine if the same thing happens on your end. Don't kill each other now~."

Misaki exits out the way they had come in with a light wave. Touma watched after her back with no small amount of melancholy. They were supposed to have known each other but he had no memory of her at all. All those happy times they might have had were hers alone to recall fondly. What hurt even more was the fact that he could feel himself losing track of her in his head. Even that small amount of contact was quietly being erased at a steady rate. At least he could remember the times he's had with Index after the most recent mind wipe but it seems like he's simply not allowed to even hold onto that regarding her. He turns back around to Kumagawa once she had left through the double doors but initially sees no one in the spot he had been in. That is until he had popped back up from having leaned his torso at a nearly impossible angle.

[Man, I hate to see her go but I love watching her leave. Know what I mean, jelly bean?]

"...I'm just going to ignore that but why did you nudge my leg the second time?"

[You should already have a guess as to why but I'll spell it out for you. She thinks that your memory loss is fault due to her meddling with your head after you had gotten yourself injured to save her. Sure the second time you got smacked in the head had nothing to do with her but she might not see it that way. I was just trying to spare her the heartbreak of assuming that was her fault too.]

"I see. Thanks for that."

[Didn't do it so you could save face. If it was anyone else other than Misaki, I would've let you make an ass out of yourself.]

"But you still helped me regardless of if it was intentional or not. Just the gratitude already idiot."

Kumagawa narrows his eyes as he frowns but almost immediately turns away and starts walking towards the back.

"Oi, where are you going?"

[There's two paths to the Railroad Cafe. One leads from up towards School Garden, as you know, and the other has an exit inside of a Skill Out owned warehouse in District 19. We'll get a car on the other side and make our way over to that hospital. Should be a piece of cake, b0ss!]

"...Huh?"

Kumagawa stops where he was and looks back at Touma's confused expression.

[What?]

Touma doesn't answer for awhile, seemingly trying to collect his thoughts on the matter, before he scratches his head as he closes his eyes.

"Nothing. I just had the weirdest feeling like you had replaced a letter for a number at the end there. It must be exhaustion getting to me or something."

He reopens his eyes and sees all emotion wiped from Kumagawa's face, his own eyes wide open.

"I know I said something strange just then but there's no way it was _that_ strange was it? You've definitely said weirder."

The Minus opens and shuts his mouth a few times before replying.

[No. It was definitely strange but that must be my influence rubbing off on you. If it wasn't...well we don't have the luxury to dwell on that right? Let's get going before my paranoia gets the better of me here.]

He storms off in a hurry with a still bewildered Touma following after.

* * *

"Well, it's fortunate for us that he's not smart enough to recognize our influence."

"He probably knows already but he just wants to remain blissfully ignorant. That Minus has been appearing to forget about our existence in this world but there's no way he could actually have let us out of his mind so easily."

"I suppose that makes sense. He forced this series into a crossover by coming here because of Anshin'in. For him to forget about her Terminals would be incredibly reckless on his part. Though just because of that, it would also make sense for him to ignore that our presence is starting to blur the lines between fiction and non-fiction enough for other characters to start breaking the 4th wall a bit. Kumagawa is that kind of a Minus after all."

* * *

 **Hey look at that! I told you the next update would be by the weekend, just not which one! Yeah, fucking hadn't had the internet bill paid so I had to wait till I got my next paycheck to get it back up again. Lesson for me here is to be responsible and leave a bit of money for that sort of thing. For you all, the lesson is to take when I say I'll post updates with a bowl of salt. Sorry about that. To make up for it, I've got another update to post as soon as I'm done with the afterword thing I do on the end of these things. Anyway, I had way too much fun with the Touma & Kumagawa interactions. It's not like I couldn't have done that sort of thing with the other Index characters and him but there was just way too many opportunities for it here. I also managed to fit the inevitable Kumagawa & Aogami shenanigans. I figured they'd get along but I am of the opinion that Kumagawa isn't into traps or shotas. If that part confused you, go search up that long paragraph of Aogami's range of fetishes. Shota was, in fact, there among all of that. I also wanted to add some moments for Kumagawa and Touma to come to understand each other. Make no mistake though even if Kumagawa becomes friends with Touma, there will still be plenty of times where he'll attack him due to differences of opinions. Or because he felt like it. Shit happens. Well, see you all in about ten minutes or so if the internet doesn't shit out on me again...just knocked on wood for that one.  
**


	15. Chapter 15

Terminal Impatience  
There_Are_Other_Wanderers_Than_These

* * *

To one of Kumagawa's Skill Out safehouses' was where both himself and Touma were headed after having left the Railroad Cafe. Now the cafe is back in District 7 while the safehouse is in District 19, 4 entire separate districts separating the two. At first, this was the primary concern for Touma as he had imagined that they would have to walk the entire distance but those worries were cast aside as they boarded a high-speed train 'borrowed' from one of the members of the Board of Directors that governs many aspects of the city in the background.

At the moment, the two sit across from each other and talk to pass the time.

"You said it was high-speed but isn't this going pretty...slow?"

Kumagawa's expression darkens with rage at his complaints.

[You can walk if you want, you damn ingrate.]

Touma by now has managed to have gotten at least somewhat used to his mood swings so the hostility that would set most people off was just lightly brushed off.

"I'm just saying the thing is moving slower than the speed limit."

As he had figured, Kumagawa's mood did a total 1620 from where it had been. What had been anger and scrunched up facial features had changed immediately to abashed shyness as the Minus tuns away in embarrassment while he pouts.

[Well, apparently this was one of those Director dude's trains. It ahhh kinda got broke a little bit.]

"As in someone in the Board of Directors?"

[Yeah.]

"...Are you insane? You're directly going up against the city at this point."

[Considering they had sent people to assassinate me on a few occasions now, I'd say that time has well come and gone. Plus, this was taken from him by the Skill Out guys long before I even knew about them. The guy is always riding a subway whirling around under the city but sometimes he has to transfer trains in order to keep one maintained while he takes the fresher one. Skill Out tried to figure out when that happened so they could sabotage the train and take him hostage. Thing about it was that the information they got was set up by that Director to be just a red herring. How the hell he keeps the train running if he doesn't ever stop it is beyond me. Maybe he jumps into another one while it's moving or something. I dunno. At any rate, this train was the one they thought he was on and once they had gone through it, they realized it was a trap.]

"Did Anti-Skill come to arrest the lot of them? Oh, that wouldn't make sense since Skill Out kept the train."

[It was a bomb. They just managed to find it before it blew and happened to be lucky enough to have people that could disarm it there.]

"So how did it break then?"

[Already broken. Which was why it was easily disposable I guess. Or that was purposely done. Yet again, I don't know. Don't care. As long as it makes the journey a little easier, I'm cool with it. We may be going slow but we are at least going in a straight line so we'll get there faster at this speed than if we were to use a car on the topside.]

"Well, alright. Let's see...how long do we have?"

[Like 10 minutes or so.]

"Huh. Oh. Where did you even come from? I guess I'd want to know why you're here too but you don't want to tell me do you?"

[I'll tell you. To an extent. Not because of anything like trust but it's not really something a regular guy can just take in all in one go. At least not without some snacks and a working toilet nearby. Don't know why that wasn't a priority in restoring the damn thing but whatever.]

Touma raises an eyebrow but otherwise remains silent.

[I come from….another world. Yeah, that'll probably be an easier pill to swallow there.]

"So like a parallel universe or something?"

[Basically. In my world everyone was separated into one category or another. There were Normals, Specials, Abnormals, Minuses, and Not Equals. There was some other group but I can't really remember them too well. Stuck their tongues out and liked making puns I think but that's all I remember. Hadn't done too much that time other than All Fiction a buddy of mine as a prank. Pretty funny actually. Hehehe. Anyway, the reason why I came here was because someone I know is here as well. She's an enemy I have to beat no matter what.]

His usual ambiguous smile was dyed in the colors of fond nostalgia and despondency.

"An enemy?"

[I guess it'd be more accurate to say that it's her state of mind that is my enemy but it's just as well to say that the main focus is on her. Ah, suppose it's only fair to tell you since you'll probably be involved one way or another so listen up a bit, please and thank you.]

Touma was about to ask what he was talking about when he saw the expression on Kumagawa's face change yet again. This time, he could tell there was none of the fool he had been speaking to moments ago in front of him. This was now someone that had steeled their will to do anything it takes to get what he wants.

"If it comes down to it, I'll destroy this universe just to stall her plans. I'd sooner kill every last person on this planet personally than to see her do what she wants. That's the best case scenario here. If she isn't stopped, the damage won't be limited to just this world. It won't be anything as melodramatic as all of existence but at the very least, all possibility of this universe will be erased. No past or future will exist. Any universe that has any sort of reference to this world as a story or video game or anything will get erased as well. Although, that's just speculation on my part but this universe in particular _will_ get destroyed if she has her way."

"...Why tell me all that?"

"I may not like you but I've come to tolerate you to a degree after the short time we've bullshitted around together. Since you're the same type of guy that doesn't ever quite have things go as they'd like, which also happens to relate to my hate of unfairness, I just wanted to let you know that the chance that I'll just impale you with screws whenever your back is turned is always there."

Touma's face remains as blank a canvas as Kumagawa's until a smile creeps in with a small chuckle following after. Kumagawa has never been the sort to be left out of a joke so he just begins to silently fume as he waits for an explanation.

"I think...I kinda get you."

"The hell do you mean by that?"

"You're just such an honest liar. As contradictive as it is, that's the only way to put my perspective of you into words."

The anger dissolves, slowly, but Kumagawa's silence returns at it's previous capacity.

"You're always the first to cheat when it comes to people better than you but when you see someone weak like me struggling, you can't help but to cut me some slack. You may not like my personality or what I do but that doesn't stop you from relating to my problems one way or another. Which is why you only went full force on me, back on that overpass, and not on Birdway. You thought I could maybe pose some kind of threat or at least your powers might not work on me as well. Either way, you just wanted to see me crushed in as efficient a way as possible. Birdway wasn't really a part of that."

"You think so? Is she not important to you then?"

"Of course she is. But if you really wanted to use her to get at me, then you would have started hitting her with those screws from the beginning. I don't know how it's done but you got me with them faster than I could blink. Why not do the same to her?"

"...Because it's hard to do when there's other things going on. You're slightly above regular in terms of movement speed, so it's easier to get you while I'm stationary, but people with powers like Tweety can easily screw up my focus. It may not seem that way from the way I act but the damage does mess with that. I have will enough to use those sort of fatal injuries to give me the psychological edge over enemies. That doesn't mean that I can perform at full power when I do. Besides, I screwed those arms and legs pretty good, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did. Was that not because of me escaping from your screws? It seemed to me like you were just trying to force her to give up the fight before I started trying to tear my arm out of there. When you pinned her, although this is hindsight talking, you seemed to have totally switched gears from her to me. Or am I wrong yet?"

Kumagawa crosses his arms as he frowns quietly.

"Maybe you are. Maybe you're not. Maybe go fuck yourself. What does that have to do with me betraying you later on?"

"I'm saying that given all that, everything will be fine if we stop her before any of that happens."

[Wh-wait. What?]

The confusion had apparently shocked himself out of the seriousness he had showed just now. Though it didn't help that even Touma seemed confused by the reaction.

"Well this is something that'll have a huge effect on this world right? So why wouldn't I help you stop her?"

[But...I just said that-]

"Yeah, I know. Which is why I'm saying that we should stop her before then. I don't know if I could beat you when you're that serious but I doubt you'll be alright with killing them all. No matter what kind of resolve you have, those are still people you're killing. That power of yours makes it convenient for you to cause fatal damage to people without any casualties from your fights but the memory of their deaths would still be there if you made that damage permanent right? There's no way you could live with yourself after that even if you do beat her in the end. You're not that much of a bastard."

"...Hahaha."

The hollow laughter echoes through the empty car.

[Alright. Tell me then, Touma-sensei, since you understand me so much, what if I've already done that to another universe already?]

Touma wanted to reject that question but the tone had just gotten darker than the one before. He could physically see the space around Kumagawa become distorted as whatever is boiling up within that Minus starts infecting and rotting the rest of the air in the train car. This wasn't something he could ignore.

"Have you...really?"

[Yeah. In order to travel universes, I had to erase all trace of me from my own universe. I had thought that All Fiction was a fairly limited power until then. Even when I make something into nothing like someone's death, it doesn't effect the fact that person had died at all. They still remember it even if the event no longer exists. When I erased my existence from there, I hadn't thought that it would extend beyond me at all. I had managed to erase every possible iteration of my original universe. By doing that, I have managed to surpass any serial killer in murdering an infinite count of lives as I had erased any similar universes that had me in it from existence. Doing the same to a universe that isn't even mine wouldn't even be a problem at all.]

The two stay quiet as they gauge the thoughts in each others eyes from across the aisle. Eventually Touma speaks up, albeit slowly as though he was handling a bomb waiting to be set off.

"Then that's even more reason to keep it from happening. You regret doing that right? You wouldn't speak like this about something you didn't care about at all. Considering that you include my universe into that, I doubt you really want to do that here as well."

[...You doubt my resolve to stop her?]

Touma shakes his head as he looks down before replying.

"It's not that. It's just...you have it in you to kill but not to let someone die. I won't pretend to understand what you're going through because I honestly can't see a situation that I could be in that would make me feel that way but regardless, you are in that situation. I can't stop that but at the very least I can help you save that person from herself so you won't have to corner yourself into that bad ending to end all bad ends."

[It's not as though I won't feel any sort of regret over it. The fact that I had killed off all the people I cared about _is_ killing me. But if that's what it takes to stop her then that's fine. Or at least that's what I'll say since there's no way to make it 'fine'. My personal feelings don't matter when it comes to that. Heh. By now you should know that I'm exactly that kind of stubborn, irredeemable bastard that I had warned you about before.]

Touma, seeing that there is no reaching any sort of a middle ground, gives up on convincing him.

"...I see."

"But."

It was at this moment that Touma lifted his head. Kumagawa's fists were tightly clenched as he spoke his mind.

"But...that's only in the case that I fail to stop her. I won't let my usual misfortune get in the way of that. Just keep what I said in mind."

"…Right. Hm? Wait, why would the damage have traveled so far when you just used All Fiction on yourself?"

"I told you. I made every universe that I had been born in into nothing. I erased every possibility of my existence so I could escape the bounds of my world. How it let me get here though...I guess things just sort of auto-corrected from there. I was still existing after all, it was just that I had no real origin so I was just put somewhere else. I'm not really smart enough to understand this kind of complexity."

"Well, that kinda explains some other things but..."

Touma was hesitant over his next words but Kumagawa wasn't in a mood to be patient about things.

"What? You going to tell me off about erasing all those worlds? I can just use Non Fiction to bring them back. Ah, but maybe that's what has you pissed. You dislike my apathy in using my Skills."

"I am but it's not really that."

"Then spit it out already. We may have some time but I don't feel like hearing you hum and haw over whatever the hell you're thinking about."

"Well...so when you All Fiction somebody's death, let's say, do they just have no memory of dyeing?"

Kumagawa crosses his arms and raises an eyebrow.

"No, they remember. What are you getting at?"

"If that's true, then that means that the world doesn't correct itself to fit with the events you make into nothing. So wouldn't those possibilities still exist even without you?"

"Yeah, maybe if it was only my existence that was made into nothing but-"

He had initially been scoffing Touma's questions off but now something fundamentally wrong looms over the horizon.

"..."

"So, you could have just done that and not make all those possible worlds not exist right?"

"..."

"You...never thought of that, have you?"

[FUCK!]

Kumagawa leaps up and screams a stream of curses as he rages over his oversight. He stomps up and down the car until he runs out of steam and collapses back in his spot on the bench.

[...Goddamn it. So I was just angsting over nothing? How melodramatic is that? I guess it's fine since I can still use Non Fiction but I really am just too dumb.]

"...It happens?"

[It happens? Erasing an infinite number of worlds because I was too stupid to see a far better way happens? You don't actually believe that.]

"I don't but it still happened regardless. I don't like it at all but if you really can just undo even the things you have made into nothing then it's...not really fine but I can't say much at this point."

[Stop. I get that you're sort of trying to make me feel better but that's an impossible task to try on a guy that just digs past rock bottom. Just let me despair in peace for long enough to let that mistake become apart of my life so I can laugh it off later. Haaa. I'm dumb.]

As odd as it was to say about something like this, Touma was glad Kumagawa felt remorse over it. He was worried that devil-may-care attitude of Kumagawa's had become a form of cancer for all the motivations he had spring into his head. Well he wasn't really to know how true that was but that relief was still justified when it came to why he was here. If his coming to Academy City and getting this involved with Touma's life really all was just a way for him to kill time, he wouldn't know what he could do about it. The fact that he shows such determination in saving this girl that he cares for as well as regret over the lives he had erased gives Touma a sliver of hope that they might not have to reach such a grim scenario.

These sort of touching thoughts are immediately interrupted by Kumagawa making some random noises followed by him speaking in a deep falsetto.

[Thou art I... And I am thou... Thou hast established a new bond... Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Magician Arcana.]

"...Sorry but I'm not fond of shooting myself in the head and I doubt I can fall into inter-dimensional televisions with this hand of mine. I'll pass on summoning anything, thanks."

Kumagawa excitedly shoots up from his seat as he speaks so lightly that you'd think the previous conversation hadn't ever happened. He may have gotten somewhat used to it but Touma was feeling a hell of a migraine coming on from the whiplash of Kumagawa's mood swings.

[HOLY SHIT, YOU'VE PLAYED PURSE OWNER 3 AND 4!? Well, that's still pretty damn scrubbish when it shows you haven't played 1 or 2, but then again neither have I!]

"Puse- oh. Heh, that's actually kind of funny. But no, not really. I just know about them from the few times I hung out at Tsuchimikado's place to study with him. Not that anyone could say 'we' were studying. He'd just mess around on his PSVVR while I suffered by myself. Which is why I know since he'd just tell me about the game as he plays."

[Whaaaat's a PSVVR?]

"Hm? You don't have that back in your universe? Ah, suppose not. That was a joint project between Sony and Academy City to make portable VR sets."

[Eh? Ain't they already portable when you got a phone?]

"Sure but the selling point is it has the city's technology behind it so I guess it'd be few years ahead of anything outside of here."

[Cool. Noted under important and will bother Enshuu-chan about it later. Let's wrap this up though, we're about to stop in a minute.]

Just as he says, the train stops at a decrepit maintenance station. The lighting was minimal, anything that had metal was rusted beyond belief, and there were cobwebs all over the place. As they disembark, Touma can't help but get chills at the general eeriness of the place. Kumagawa sees this and jumps at the rip opportunity to attack his unease.

[Really? With that right hand, you're really afraid something is going to spook you in here?]

"It wouldn't be the first time. You aren't at least a bit on edge? This would be exactly the sort of spot someone could ambush us in."

[I ain't afraid of no ghost.]

"I see. Well, I guess I'll just be the one to be paranoid since it's worked out for me so far."

[Coolio. I call lookout duty for any qt 3.14 ghost girls.]

Touma laughs as he gingerly puts a foot on the stairs leading from the train to the platform.

"Sure. Do what you want, Ray."

[Stop.]

He does so since he figured he was right about what he said earlier but nothing around him struck his senses as out of the ordinary.

"Uh, what is it?"

[...Have you seen Ghostbusters?]

Kumagawa's voice was still as light as it had been but Touma could feel that there was something underneath it that he couldn't put his finger on. He turns around to look at his face but sees nothing there either. Though, there was something amiss. Something he wasn't seeing there.

"...No, I guess not."

[Why did you call me Ray then?]

"Hmm. I don't really know. Guess it must have been a name that I just sort of picked up from somewhere."

[I could believe that. That is if you had used any other name than Ray.]

That's when Touma finally noticed. It was always there so he hadn't realized right away but Kumagawa was no longer smiling.

"What are you trying to say?"

He doesn't respond. Kumagawa brushes past Touma and hand scratches at the back of his head rapidly, as though he had lice eating away at his skull, while mumbling things to himself. Other than the odd swear, there was no telling what it was he was saying as he was pacing across the platform. Touma walks down the stairs, forgoing his previous caution in favor of the situation, and turns Kumagawa to him.

"Hey, what's going on?"

The agitated Minus's next words come at a machine gun's pace.

[...I might have fucked up. No, life is definitely shitting down my throat right now. Or it may be more accurate to say that it's ass is slowly inching over my head and my dumbass is only just now realizing that some shadow is falling over me. Yep. She must be roaring her face off with glee at my dumbassery.]

"Calm down. Just explain what's happening."

Kumagawa breathes deeply to do just that before he answers.

[It's...her Terminals.]

"Terminals?"

[Yeah. Guess it's pointless to avoid using her name at this point but the girl I was talking about is named Najimi Ajimu, or Anshin'in-san as she likes to be called. She's someone with immense power that she can share with others. Some of these chosen ones, so to speak since I have no better term, are chosen to be Terminals. They have Skills taken from her personal repertoire, which changes them into Not Equals. They're her eyes, ears, basically her whole assortment of artificial manipulating and observing organs. They…have a certain effect on reality.]

"Such as?"

[It was why I was so hesitant on telling you before but uh…my world is a manga in many of the universes out there.]

"Okaaaaay. What does that-"

[Getting to it. The manga was basically just a giant play on nearly every cliche the medium as to offer. The 4th wall would get abused like any cute girl in a Rance game. Please don't say anything about that.]

"I...was? I somehow had something for it but I lost it once you interrupted my train of thought. Never played the game though."

[That's what I'm talking about. Shit! Do you know what the 4th wall is?]

"It's the invisible, imagined wall that separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this 'wall', the convention assumes, the actors act as if they cannot. Why do I know that?"

[Fuckfuckfuckfuck!]

"This is freaking me out too but that isn't going to help it any."

[Don't worry about me. The theatrics are my way of coping. The point is, since these Terminals are existences that are close to mine and Anshin'in's when it comes to those cliches, they can warp the rest of the reality they are in just by their presence.]

"So, does that mean that...we're in a story then?"

[Yes, no, and maybe. Infinite universes means infinite possibilities. There are universes where your world and mine just exist as manga or whatever so it'd be feasible that this all could be a crossover of a sort.]

Touma crosses his arms as he forces himself to accept this new version of reality that presented itself.

"This is...so weird. I don't even know why I'm so easily accepting all this. Though that's probably just another aspect of their influence then. Are you sure it's not an original work or something?"

[Come on, who would begin a story with as many convoluted aspects as this should have without explaining any of what the hell is going on?]

"You never know. It could be that the author just wanted to let things get revealed as things progress."

[Which would mean that it's a crossover. The guy probably thinks that only fans of the series...serieses?...fuck it, only fans of either of the source materials would get interested in this. He's probably some newbie that doesn't really think too hard on these things.]

"What makes you think it's a guy writing this?"

His further questioning only serves to aggravate Kumagawa more.

[Because, Urchin-cunt, there's no damn way a girl would- no there would be freaks like that I guess. I still doubt that it's a girl...not sure how I feel about the other implications but look, why do you keep sidetracking me, bastard!?]

"I'm just trying to get as much information as I can since you probably won't give it to me if I don't ask about it!"

Kumagawa's hands slap against his face as he rubs it around furiously before dropping them at his sides.

[That would happen in any other situation but now there's far too much at risk to do that. You're here so I have to add you into my arsenal of stuff in order to beat those guys. I'll tell you about what you want to know but I'll immediately reject retarded stuff like what you were just talking about just now. Anything regarding what the Terminals can do is free game.]

"What about that Anshin'in girl?"

[We won't need to worry about her.]

"Why? Isn't-"

[She knows where we are if they do. If she really wanted to get personally involved, then she would. Let's just leave it at that before either of us jinx that only bit of hope we have right now. Honestly, I don't know why she hasn't showed herself. Anshin'in-san should've come by already to laugh at me. Kinda makes me feel a bit hurt.]

"Oi! Didn't you just get done talking about jinxes!? Stop setting off flags for dead ends!"

[Right. Right. Right. Guess I get a bit excitable when it comes to her. Those Terminals were probably sent to try kicking me out of your world and I don't know if I'll be able to make that infinity to one shot again of finding her again. That and this'll put us off track a bit when it comes to that friend of yours.]

He had already figured as much when it came to the first comment but the second one threw Touma for a loop.

"...Huh?"

[By the fact that they're having this much of an effect on reality, the Terminal's are either very close to us or there's a metric fuckton of them. Either way, there likely won't be any getting around them now. That's going to make settling the matter with Tsuchimikado difficult as hell from here on out.]

"It's rude to ask but you actually care about that?"

[Hey. I get why you bring that up but I'm honestly not about letting people get bogged down in misfortune. If I just start allowing people to be unlucky then they might threaten my position as the unluckiest. Can't have that.]

The way it was said irked him but it wasn't like he couldn't understand where he was coming from. Touma was beginning to come to empathize with Kumagawa's mind set, as twisted as it is. But this is no time for such conscious reflection.

"Alright. How many of those guys can we expect? What will they be like? Powers?"

[No idea on any of that. With the amount of Skills she has, she could give every human being on the planet a Skill and still have plenty left over.]

"...I'm afraid to ask but-"

[Twelve quadrillion, eight hundred fifty-eight trillion, fifty-one billion, nine hundred sixty-seven million, six hundred thirty-three thousand, eight hundred sixty-two.]

"I uh huh?"

[You heard me.]

"...I've never even heard of a number so ridiculous as that."

[Likely never will. But that's the kind of threat we're facing. I have no idea of anything regarding them other than they're in GREMLIN too. As to how many there are or whether she got them to do that, still don't know.]

"Then it'd be safe to assume they're also amongst the residents of Academy City. Damn it. This is-"

[Some absolutely abysmal luck we have to get this dumped on us. I agree. Should've known that nothing good would come of two misfortunate bastards like us coming together.]

The smile returns a bit at this. By 'a bit' is really meant as 'with a vengeance'. He turns and briskly walks over to the stairs leading up to the surface.

"Do you have a plan?"

[Do I ever? Nah. I'm not the type for complicated stuff like that. I just walk into these situations blind and let come what may.]

"That...doesn't really work for Kamijou-san, you know?"

[Sounds like a personal problem. Do what you want, I'm going up to see if the welcoming party is ready for us.]

Touma stops there and watches Kumagawa disappear through a hallway as he considers his options.

He could try to go further down the way and head up from there so he could get back to trying to help Tsuchimikado. He could wait until they finished up there. He could call Misaki...or not since he doesn't have her number.

Though the options existed, there wasn't much of a choice to begin with.

Even if there were better paths to take, he wouldn't have a choice. Kumagawa told him that he was going to save Tsuchimikado from his misfortune. Despite the fact that he had no real reason to do so. Despite having to deal with an existence like Anshin'in. Despite going up to take those Skill users that held fragments of that measurable, though insane, power. He still said he would. Now that he thought on it, it was likely that Kumagawa was trying to push Touma on to go after Tsuchimikado while he kept the Terminals busy.

There was only one thing left to be said on Kamijou Touma's part.

"It's never simple when it comes to these situations but I can't remember a time when it was this bad. Such misfortune."

* * *

Kumagawa crouches near the entrance to the inside of the warehouse. It was the same one that he had Hamazura and the others stay in during the events surrounding Fraulein Kreutune. There should have been his Skill Out guards around but there was no one other than an unknown group of people in the middle of the interior of the large storage bay.

There was 5 of them in total. One boy was too normal looking to care about. There was a girl dressed up like a ninja. Another guy had pistols at his sides and wore a cowboy hat. The next one he saw looked like a serial killer that escaped the mental asylum or something. Then there was a guy in the middle of the room.

The boy looked reminiscent of Kakine Teikoku with some underlying differences between them. This stranger had black hair combed over to the left in a fashionable manner, a gray jacket, jeans, and sneakers. He looked like some kind of celebrity but it's not like Kumagawa would've know about that at all. Though even if he did, he suspected that he'd still feel the same way about him.

[I bet that cock thinks he's such hot shit just because Anshin'in-san gave him a bit of attention. Probably thinks that she's some kind of goddess meant to be worshiped or something. Just look at this guy. Oh! I'm sooooo coooooool because I'm popular and handsome! Gonna give him a taste of what it's like to be on my side of things. Put that stupid mid-boss in his place. Fuck that kid.]

The bloodlust being generated just then was racing up towards the level of what Marian's Dainsleaf. But it would be an exaggeration to say it could cause the heart to stop. Maybe some serious heart burn but that was neither here nor there. Just as sudden as it was to ire, the anger is snuffed out as Kumagawa bolts out into the open and waves over amicably.

[Heeeeeey! Yoooooou! Guuuuuuuuys!]

They all turn to him expectantly. The only to speak is the leader.

"Hmph. So you finally showed yourself, eh?"

[Yup, yup, yup! I figured that you guys were waiting so patiently so I didn't want to disappoint you by not coming. I'd rather be anywhere else than with you background characters since you'll just rub your irrelevancy off on me!]

This would be the point where they all faint. Or at least it would be all but the mid-boss guy.

They all stay standing.

"Oh? Is that so?"

He didn't expect too much from that plan. Not Equals have been proven to be resistant to Kumagawa's mental attacks.

[So, what now then? Will Anshin'in-san come out?]

The other Not Equals laugh at his question like it should be obvious.

"Huh? Why would she bother to come out for a loser like you?"

[OHHHHHH.]

Kumagawa's right fist claps against his left palm.

[ _You_ must be thinking that I'm talking to you because I'm looking at you but, well this is a bit embarrassing, I'm talking to your boss over there."

He turns deliberately and looks at the dull looking boy that he had noticed first sitting on a crate about 15 feet from them.

This one was a total opposite from the one in front of Kumagawa. He wore a bland school uniform that anyone could be seen wearing around the city and had a forgetful face to match. There was absolutely nothing that could separate this one from the throngs of students in the city.

"That's pretty impressive. Anshin'in said that you'd be able to pick me out but how did you figure that one, senpai?"

The way the boy called Kumagawa his senpai was filled with nothing but sarcasm, provocation, and hollowness. Of course, Kumagawa cares little about that as he moves closer.

"If I couldn't smell a boss switcheroo from a mile away, I'd be long dead by now. Keep that senpai bit by the way. Makes me sound important and cool. So what noise do I make to get your attention?"

"Huh?"

"What's your name?"

The boy laughs.

"I guess it doesn't really matter since you'll be taken out of this crossover within the next thousand words or so but it's Genjitsu Sei. But you can just call me Sei."

Kumagawa's eyes twitch a bit.

"Oho. You seem really confident for some mid-boss."

"How could I not when Anshin'in-san chose me to kill you, senpai?"

"You sure she meant 'kill' kill? Cause maybe she didn't tell you but-"

"She told us about all your Skills. From the moment you stood in here, you forfeited those. Sorry but your Minuses are nothing against my Minus."

Another twitch of the eye.

"Riiight. I can't acknowledge you as a Minus but guess I'll bite."

He suddenly claps his hands to the sides of his face in mock horror.

"OOOOOOOOOH NOOOOOOOO! WHAT DID YOU DOOOOOOOO!?"

"Haha. Yeah, that character trait of yours to laugh in the face of impossible odds is pretty funny but as you say so often...or maybe you don't anymore, either way this isn't Jump. You can't abuse cliches to get out of this one."

Several twitches this time.

"Hm. So. What the hell is it? I really have little time to play right now."

Again, Sei laughs much to Kumagawa's chagrin.

"You should have caught onto the hint by now. Well, you're probably too stuck on that inferiority complex that was written into your character to notice by now but maybe my pointing that much out will help."

Kumagawa had reached his boiling point and was about to materialize his screws when he got a chill down his spine.

"Oh? Do you see now, senpai?"

"...You...took away the brackets."

"It's something of a side effect of the power but yes, you are no longer able to hide behind that 'cool' act of yours."

Kumagawa inhales. Then exhales. With that, he discarded his smile and gives Sei nothing but the truth that lays behind the mask he wears.

"Cool. Then I can just tear your face apart with my screws since…."

"Clint."

With that utterance, the cowboy tears a single revolver from it's holster at breakneck speeds. On seeing it, Kumagawa found himself completely frozen in place. It was as though an unnatural force held him in place.

"Soooo, going to finish that sentence, senpai?"

"...What the hell kind of cheat power did she give you?"

Sei's grin slowly widens in delight.

"She gifted unto me 105 of her Skills to give to whoever I want. Everyone here has multiple Skills. All of them were given for the purpose of killing you off for good. I was able to combine two of her Skills, Eternal Eternal Life and Life Zero, to make a Skill of my very own. Infinite Emptiness. This Skill allows me to nullify anything outside of the norm within my presence. To top it off, I was also given Exception Please to allow for the Skills I had given everyone to work even in my presence. That's why I can say that your Skills and ability to cheat the narrative are useless before me. Even that inexplicable level of speed you have is gone. A loser like you ought to understand when you're out-"

"No. I'm done letting this happen."

Sei, for the first time since the conversation started, became confused.

"Oh, what do mean?"

"What do I mean, huh? You did take away my capability to outright lie to people so why not tell you. You, as in everyone present, is an absolute fucking nobody. No one cares about you at all."

"Really, then why had Anshin'in given me those Skills? You may be angry over being passed over by Anshin'in but you have to face the facts. We are her chosen ones here-"

Once more, Sei is interrupted. This time it was Kumagawa's raucous laughter that did it.

"...What?"

"You know she's probably laughing at you dumb bastards from wherever she is right? Chosen ones? Skills? Do you actually believe that any of that crap makes you 'special'? Do you think that she even gives damn about being 'special'? You idiots are about as 'special' as anyone else in this world."

"That's just idiotic. We each have power enough to take on the elite of this series and yet you say we aren't special at all?"

"Of course not! I don't know how long you lot have been here but I haven't been able to throw a screw in any direction without hitting someone with 'special' powers since I got here! Don't you get it? If everyone here is 'special', then isn't that what's 'normal' from that point on?"

"That's not-"

"Oh? Are you some 'special' sort of 'special' then? Do you realize how retarded that sounds? Geeze, did she really just send you all after me so she could watch a comedy act?"

Sei's shoulders move up and down as though he had laughed but no sound comes from his direction.

"Well, it's not like your opinion really matters here-"

"It's fact. 100% truth."

"But I've had enough of playing with you. Tabe, get over here."

The one with the appearance of a rabid killer, Tabe, waddles over with his enlarged gut swaying here and there. The front of his white, tank-top was dirtied with filth and caked on blood. His maw was covered with the same material. The eyes of this man were completely vacant of any sentience. The aura of Tabe was one that any regular person would run from immediately.

To say the least, Kumagawa wasn't impressed.

"Tabe? Are you- Tabe!? You couldn't come up with something cleverer than that when you brainwashed that poor bastard!? His name is literally just 'eat' in Japanese! That'd be like naming some western super-villain, Murder Dude just because he kills people!"

"So you noticed?"

Kumagawa's exasperated eyes narrow.

"Yes, jackass, I noticed that he was brainwashed by Brain Break. Did she really just give you all Skills that I've already seen before? Is she just trying to break my will by frustrating it out of me? Because it's working pretty damn well, I gotta say."

"He's the only one here that will be killing you. The other three are just backup in case you decide to take the hard way out."

"And you? Just here to gloat and blow out your pointlessly enormous ego?"

"No, my function is to lead this group and neutralize your Skills as well as the abilities of any that would come to your rescue. Tabe was given 12 of the 105 Skills to suit his purpose."

Sei raises his arms from his sides as he delivers the list of Skills that would be Kumagawa's unmaking.

"Left Legs: Vanish from memories skill, I Banish: Annihilation skill, Grap Empty: Distort space skill, Dark Hole: Control black hole skill, Eat Sweet: Eat anything skill, Fighting Fang: Lengthen fangs skill, Inside Hormone: Manipulate intestines skill, Big Mouth: Turn body into a mouth skill, Swallow Drunker: Swallow whole skill, and Big Meats: Muscle enlargement skill. Tabe's purpose is to completely devour your existence until there's none of it left for you to All Fiction from."

"Wow. I get it. Tabe. Because he's going to go Hannibal Lecter on me. Didn't see that one coming at all. Although, I counted 11 there. I might be bad at math but I can at least count til 20."

"The 12th Skill isn't one that needs to be told to you."

"So it's not one meant for me then? I'm a gambling man so I'll hazard a guess as to it being Beautiful Last Scene, the self-destruct Skill. It only makes sense considering how volatile those Skills are in combination with his lack of reason."

"Of course. Minuses like us can't rely on luck to help us."

"True. But an actual Minus wouldn't go so far to assure their safety, you shitty fake."

Throughout the conversation, Sei had been the very model of composure. All of Kumagawa's casually flung insults washed over him like it was nothing. From that last one, however, Kumagawa observes the slightest of twitches from the right eye.

"Ha. I see. The experience you've had as a powerful Minus Skill holder, as much as I hate to admit you are at all, has made you grow in the arrogance of believing that you are some expert on Minuses. Sorry to say but my ability as a Minus has warped Anshin'in's Skills into a Minus that can trump your own. You won't even be able to 'lose' in the way your character dictates."

"...That's what really pisses me off about you and your kind. I'm sure the rest of you are the same way despite being so obediently quiet so listen in too if you want to actually evolve beyond the walking cliché right in front of me."

"Cliche? What-"

"Quiet."

Such a short, simple phrase was all it took to freeze the blood of everyone in the room. If he had been speaking with his 'cool' act in place, the effect wouldn't have been anywhere near the level it is now. But without that mask to keep the negativity at bay, it becomes an overwhelming force that cannot be ignored lightly.

"You sit there talking about arrogance and being chosen but you really have no goddamn clue whatsoever of what you're talking about. I'll use Anshin'in-san as an example since you really have the wrong idea of her. She's someone with a ridiculous count of Skills and an age to match that. But not even she thinks that makes her special! She sneers at people that think they have those sorts of protagonist-like qualities! She doesn't differentiate between good and evil or success and failure! Existence itself is just one big pointless joke to her! You idiots dress up in your silly little cosplays and get high of the meager amount of Skills she lent you but you know she's just laughing at your dumb asses right!?"

The cowboy to Kumagawa's left finally speaks up.

"W-what's wrong with the way we look?"

"The fact that you stuttered tells me you know exactly why but I can spell it out for you. What purpose does that giant hat serve in an urban jungle like this? How about that duster? Hm? Can you tell me that, 'Clint'?"

"Well...the hat keeps the shade out of my eyes and-"

"Wear a baseball cap then. And change your name to something not reminiscent of a western movie star. You're Japanese for God's sake."

"B-but that's-"

"Not cool enough? Or is it because it's not thematic with the gun Skills you have? Yeah, I know you have some of those Skills. You people are all dressed to match your Skills. The girl over there has some ninja Skills, popular douchebag probably has some protagonist Skills, and the mid-boss is fashionably suited for his mediocre protagonist Skills. If Anshin'in-san had any compassion for me, she would have given one of you that useless Skill to increase the number of navels you have. That at least would have gotten a laugh out of me."

"You think that means anything!?"

The others flinch at Sei's sudden outburst.

"How am I not special!? Such a powerful being chose me! Anshin'in was the one to give me these Skills and from there I passed them on to the others here! I have single-handily made it so us five can stand toe to toe with the likes of even Saints and Level 5s in this series! Hell, not even plot armor can save them! Stop acting so superior just to cover up the fact that you've lost those brackets that you hide behind!"

Kumagawa looks around to the others present in mock surprise and excitement as he begins to cry out with enough sarcasm saturating the air to choke a man.

"Oh my. Oh my, oh my, oh my. Hey! Hey everyone! THIS GUY IS BREAKING THE 4TH WALL! THE MID-BOSS IS BREAKING THE 4TH FUCKING WALL OVER HERE! HE JUST TALKED ABOUT MY BRACKETS AND PLOT ARMOR! HOW META!"

He waits for a reaction but there was none other than confusion.

"Well would you look at that. Nobody gives a shit. That's your hypocrisy acting up again, I suppose. Just because Anshin'in-san does it, it doesn't that you'll suddenly be any less irrelevant than what you are right now. I seriously hate people like you. You sit there and get so much of an ego trip once you have even a little bit of power. I bet you're one of those that looks down on the rest of humanity and says some crap like, 'Kuhuhu...humans are so interesting'. Don't you realize that even if you weren't human, you'd still have the mentality of one by showing such enjoyment at other's misfortunes!? Do you really think that Anshin'in-san actually thinks that way!? She doesn't sneer at everyone because she's strong, she does it because of idiots like you that put so much importance on that power!"

"...I've had enough. Even with the Skills she gave me to neutralize your psychological attacks, it wasn't anywhere near the level needed to take you on. Everyone, cover Kumagawa. Make sure he doesn't run or try anything. Tabe. Serve your purp-"

Before he could say anything, a blur lept from behind the crates to Sei's right and held him back with something glinting in the light that crept in from the ceiling at his throat. He had waited quite a while but Kamijou Touma had finally arrived to back Kumagawa up.

Although, Kumagawa didn't appear to be very grateful.

"What are you doing? You should have just gone on to save that friend of yours."

"Save it for later! You said you were going to help me save him so I'm holding you to that word no matter what!"

Whatever he held is pressed closer to Sei's skin.

"Hey! Tell your guys to let him go!"

"...This isn't normal at all."

"MOVE HEDGEHOG!"

Touma flashes a look to his side just in time as the ninja comes in low with a katana in hand. He pushes Sei over at her charging form while throwing himself out the way. But the ninja wasn't the only one looking to capture this new challenger. Clint raises another gun from his holster as he points it over at Touma.

"Freeze Your Neck!"

The Skill being used was a gun Skill that could freeze the opponent by having a gun pointed at them. But with Sei's power in place, there shouldn't have been any extraordinary way of protecting oneself against such a Skill.

That's how Sei thought it would happen.

By reflex alone, he whips his right hand in the gunslinger's direction and a sound of something shattering echoes through the warehouse. Sei, now a distance away, was shocked beyond belief.

"What? How? How could he still use that power!? Powers aren't normal to begin with!"

"Guess I'll have to explain again since you're too dense by far to listen.]

Despite the other gun that was still pointed at him, Kumagawa begins to walk over to Sei and the ninja.

[I told you that everyone here has special powers right? Or at least a good portion of the people do. These powers used to be hidden from the public eye but recently the world has become increasingly aware of them. Doesn't such an acceptance of the unknown by society make those special powers normal, Normal-sensei?]

"He's free somehow! All of you! Kill him now!"

Ninja girl crouches lower than she ever had with her blade held along her side. Clint had put his revolvers back into the holsters and kept his hands at the ready. The popular guy hadn't really moved but the aura he put out was serious enough to expect that the slightest movement would leave plenty of carnage in his wake.

But this all paled in comparison to Tabe's Skills being simultaneously activated.

The intestines writhed inside of him as the changed shape and grew in size. Tears streamed down his face as the face itself disappeared behind the ever growing jaws and teeth. Muscles tense and pulsate as they become stronger and bigger. By the end of his transformation, there was nothing but an enormous mouth, gaping and slobbering with drool.

Screws pinned all of them to the floor regardless.

[Really now? You knew I had managed to get free of that crap but you still decided to try to get them to attack me anyway? You're stubborn but even I have to say that was pretty stupid of you.]

Tabe's monstrous form had broken out of the screws and began to lurch over to Kumagawa at impossible speeds using the jaw muscles alone.

[All-]

"Brain Break."

Before he could reach his meal, Tabe had inexplicably exploded.

[Well that's not very nice of you. Do you not have confidence in your teammates?]

"No. I don't."

As soon as he had spit these words out from his mouth, the remaining Terminals had turned toward their leader as he raised an open hand. They paled but immediately began to turn their powers toward him but it was too late. He had been prepared to do this from the moment Touma had managed to negate his Skill.

"Know How Vacuum."

Various strings of kanji fly from the bodies of the others and become sucked into the palm of his hand. He holds that mass of black letters closed up in his hand as he looks over to the ones he had betrayed. They all looked so weak now that they see he holds the Skills he had lent them in his hand. Their eyes hold the desire of an addict on a withdrawal being shown their poison of choice right in front of them. It's to be expected after all. These people all had been given a way to abuse the loopholes to get away from the cruelty of reality.

"...I have no sympathy for those that don't understand how things work."

Sei's hand closes as he takes the Skills back into himself, the willpower of the others being taken along with them.

"Idiots. If someone shows up on your front door and says they'll give you whatever power you want, are you really expecting that generosity to last? The only way you could have escaped the absorb Skills Skill was to make at least one of the Skills I lent you yours somehow. I had hoped one of you could do it at least but-"

He stoops over to pick up a piece of the gore from Tabe's untimely demise.

"That was too much to expect from you all I guess."

The hand crushes down on the flesh, destroying it, as the Skills become absorbed.

"Haha. You were wrong. Betraying your friends to give yourself a modicum of a chance at victory can only be pathetic enough to qualify as something a Minus would do. The only difference between when you or I do it is the fact that there is no longer any chance of failure for me."

[Nah. The difference is that I look cool doing it. You just look like some kid living out his chunni fantasies.]

"And that's not what you do? Regardless, you may have your Skills back and the Imagine Breaker on your side but it's only a matter of time before I can adjust myself to ignore those fallacies you had presented to mess with Infinite Emptiness. Considering that, you should just surrender."

[Why would I do that?]

"Does that main character to the left of you have much time? I had another Terminal eavesdrop on you back in the cafe, so I already know the two of you are in a race to stop Tsuchimikado Motoharu from enacting his revenge. If you surrender yourself now, he'll have time to save him. Or if the main character in question abandons you, that'd be fine as well."

Touma and Kumagawa look at each other.

[What do you think, shitty deflated pin-cushion?]

"I ran out here to help you so what do you think, shitty fake hedgehog?"

[Huh!? Who're you calling- oh, my hair really is still spiked. That's a pretty good comeback actually! Though if I was asking for one of those, I'd just ask your mother to spit.]

"...What are you, five?"

[That was how deep I was in your mom last night.]

As the two joked, Sei seethed.

"Are you two serious!? I have taken back all of the Skills that were being used by these assholes against you earlier! I could destroy this damn city in a minute!"

[Yeah, yeah. Should you do that, I'll take a picture and frame it on the fridge for you.]

The threat wasn't so easily brushed off by Touma.

"I live here you know."

[Well, I just have no intention of taking this retard seriously. Setting aside your lack of faith in this city's residents, I'll have to bust out one of my techniques. You should feel honored, Normal-sensei. This was a move that forced Medaka-chan to use up one of her specialized Kurokami Phantoms way back when.]

Kumagawa suddenly crouches into a runner's position

"So get ready because I'm done playing with you too."

Every Skill Sei had in him was being used at once, an aura of distorted reality expanding from him. But the attack came much quicker than he could expect.

[SURPRISE BACKHAND!]

Other than Kumagawa's inscrutable speed being behind it, there was nothing special at all about the backhanded slap that ran across Sei's face. It hit hard enough to send him flying.

[LET'S GET OUTTA HERE!]

Before he could react himself, Touma found himself alone in that warehouse.

"GODDAMNIT! YOU COULD AT LEAST WAIT FOR ME BASTARD!"

And just like that, Genjitsu Sei had failed completely to get Kumagawa to fight him seriously, let alone kill him. He lay there on his back with a vacant stare pointed at the ceiling until a shadow falling over him forces him away from whatever inward grievances he had.

"...Are you going to take them back?"

The ninja girl was standing over him but the expression and look in her eyes was nothing like what she had earlier. Her gaze had a mischievous air about it.

"Hmm. No, I'll let you keep those Skills for now. I expected for him to mock you and run, honestly."

His fists clench till the white of his knuckles showed.

"Why didn't you tell me then, Anshin'in? Why did you bother sending me at him?"

"Why? Just look at that attitude of yours. He was absolutely right in every point he threw at you. There's no way you could have taken a fool like him on when you so leisurely gave him the time to draw out the information, which you freely gave I'll add, and then give him ample opportunity to use that ammo to mess with your head. If you can't kill him on your own, using your own ability and planning, then there's no sense in not doing it myself. I didn't pull you from your world and into this one so you could gloat over empty triumphs before you even get them. Remember that before you do what you want."

Sei says nothing.

"Well it's not like you were expecting to get him with all of that here anyway, right?"

"...No. Kyouko is going to be the one to do that. He's strong against my kind, yes, but with her, he won't be able to do a thing."

"Oh? You're still trying that method? Alright. Can't say I have much faith in that plan with your sister but if that's what you want to do then that's what you want to do. Oh my what'll I do if you lose again, I wonder?"

"I know you have the others in the city but I doubt any of them can hold a candle to what I've been able to build Kyouko into. With me acting as support, we're invincible. She could even beat you in this crossover story, you know."

The cheery look on Ajimu's borrowed face darkens.

"Is that so? Would you like to make a trade then to help you along with that?"

"To make things more interesting for you, you mean. What are you proposing?"

"That Kyouko-oneesan of yours is still ah inexperienced with her Skills. Especially when it comes to using them on people. I even gave her Mosquito Gate to help with that but whatever. I have a Skill to create vampires called, Rad Vlad. I'll give that to you in return for those Skills you passed out to the others here."

"Vampires? I thought they existed here. Granted they haven't appeared since the second volume of the first part of the series."

"That's right, I forgot you were a fan of the other side of this shitty crossover! Hows it going with winning that girl's-"

"I'll stop your teasing there. That's my business. Just tell me how that Skill will help me here."

She pouts as she plops down beside him, crosslegged.

"You're no fun at all. Fine. Vampires are part of the lore, yes, but they've never actually appeared so that Skill created from the 34 out of 52 Skills you lent to her can be used on them just fine. By the way, don't you think that's a tad overkill?"

"I don't want to hear that from you but...I'll take you up on that offer."

He sits up and extends his right hand over to her, as though offering a handshake. Ajimu's grin widens as her eyes narrow. When she clasps onto that hand, Sei convulses as various kanji race up along his arm and into her fingertips. Once it was finished, he holds onto the hand as though cradling an injury.

"Is it like that for everyone?"

"I could use my other Skill. That one is far gentler. It would need you to have a Skill first for it to work. That and for me to actually give a damn about the comfort of minor original characters like you. I wish I could use someone like Accelerator but it seems Eddy has done something about preventing Skills from being used by his favorites directly."

"I thought the former number 2 used All Fiction not too long ago?"

"He managed to get the proper way of thought to use it directly but in the end, it was only through the pea that he found in Kumagawa's head that he was able to do it. If all he did was copy everything over to himself and throw that pitiful thing away, he wouldn't be able to use All Fiction or any other Skill for that matter. Whatever that NEET did to them, I doubt Level 5s at least can use Skills at all. But that has nothing to do with the task I gave you. So hurry along and take care not to let that loser know about the vampires you create. He'll just make an utter ruin of your meticulous planning without you being aware of it. He's done it to better men than you, trust me. Don't lose too fast now!"

The strings holding Ajimu's puppet were cut with that final insult. Sei's stern expression holds even as he stands and leaves the warehouse to continue on the broken path he was building for himself.

* * *

 **Hi again! Don't have real life stuff to whine about here so let's move on to the stuff people really care about! I wanted to have Touma start getting involved with Kumagawa's reasons for being in the Index universe. Honesty he probably cares a lot more about Kumagawa erasing all those universes but he just hasn't got the time for that right now. Also it would be just like Kumagawa to have that kind of oversight. The other OCs aren't going to make a return but Sei will have a recurring role in the story. At least up until just before the World Rejector arc starts. Hopefully I did his character up right. I wanted him to be that sort of guy who was seriously arrogant as hell. He's going to be quite the evil, manipulating bastard later on. And not in the endearing way like with Kumagawa or Tsuchimikado. He'll get his comeuppance though. The next update will have our guys getting over to Tsuchimikado and the Rensa fight. Maybe it'll end the arc. Don't know yet because I haven't started. Hopefully it'll be out soon but we'll see.**


	16. Chapter 16

Zero Divided From The Minuses  
Ask_Yourself:_What_Would_Kumagawa_Do?

* * *

They had only about a few hours until Tsuchimikado Motoharu fully lost himself to his revenge, which was being generous as far as the time was concerned. There was no clues as to where or when he would act to avenge the loss of his step-sister. They hadn't even come anywhere near as to exactly why he was going to such lengths either. But regardless of this, Kumagawa Misogi and Kamijou Touma race across the city for answers, an escape, and some fun for one half of the unfortunate duo.

"I'm surprised you even know how to drive."

[Why? I may not look it but I'm older than my face may appear. Besides, if I know how to hot-wire a car, shouldn't logic dictate that I can operate it as well?]

"Sure. But you didn't hot-wire it. You just smashed your elbow into the driver's side window, jumped in, All Fiction'd the event so car alarm would shut up, and then you jammed a screw in the ignition to start the thing!"

[Semantics.]

"You didn't even have to do that! This isn't a car that needs a key since the ignition is just a fingerprint scan start. It's not like you had to jam whatever in there to turn anything inside there. You could have just touched the scanner and used All Fiction to make it recognize your prints as being the owner's."

[But that's boring. My way is tacti-COOL.]

After having successfully escaped from Ajimu's Terminals, Kumagawa found a car for them to travel in and, as it had been mentioned, 'hot-wired' the car so they could expedite their search for Tsuchimikado.

[At any rate, I think I ought to give you a lesson in fighting Skill users for future reference. Odds are we may find other Terminal's along the way.]

Touma looks sidelong at the driver with a great deal of exhaustion.

"Do we really have time for that?"

[Oh no! Don't worry! I'm not planning on fighting you or throwing you at random passersby until you wind up in a fight with some rando Skill user! It's more of a lecture than anything. Plus, I'm still waiting on a text from she-who-can't-be-remembered to tell us where your friend is at. We don't really have the luxury to go looking around on our own otherwise.]

"That tone of yours doesn't inspire a lot of confidence there but do I really need it? Not to sound overconfident here but you guys have enough similarities with espers to cope well enough on that knowledge alone."

[Tsk, tsk, tsk! You sweet, sweet little noob. Personal Realities and Skills have a bit in common, I'll admit, but the fundamentals of it all are too different from what you know.]

As he watches Kumagawa wag his index finger, Touma inwardly sighs as he prepares for what he feels will be a major pain in his ass and possibly an even bigger waste of his time.

"Hows that?"

[For example, I was able to take advantage of that unremarkable leader of those Terminals by using that loophole in his Skill to the fullest. His Skill was defined as being able to force 'what is normal to society' on his surroundings, which is why I was unable to do anything at first. But by provoking him to see what's 'normal' to society here, I was able to put a spin on that power. Thus allowing the two of us to use our abilities in the full capacity of what's 'normal to society'!]

"So you were just pretending to be pissed off at him then?"

[PFFFT! Of course! Do you really believe that I could have my nerves rattled by an idiot like that?]

"...You really weren't mad?"

The driver that was having his motivations questioned stays irritatingly silent for a time before he responds.

[...Maybe a little but that just helped to make the performance all the more believable. The point I'm trying to make here is that whenever he decides to bug me again, he won't have that loophole anymore. That's the main difference. Personal Realities allow for one to essentially warp reality but they are constrained by that reality they manipulate. An esper with pyrokinesis can't suddenly spout water from his hands nor can a pyro go beyond the set definition of their ability unless they can perform the calculations for it. Skill users don't have that problem. As long as one has a decent enough control over their own psychology, a Skill user can bend those definitions as much as they want without any need for complicated algorithms. As much as I hate to admit, Sei must have at least that much power over his self to be able to twist Anshin'in-san's Skills to become his own like that. He'll go from having a Skill that 'enforces societal normalcy' to 'enforcing normalcy as he, alone, sees it'.]

"Wouldn't that make him unstoppable?"

[Nah. No matter what, he's still a human being with very human reasons and wants. As long as his personality remains in that realm, he can still be understood. If he can be understood, I can find a weak spot to hit one way or the other. Skill users are by definition constrained by the limits of their psychological will, as I've said. They can only use their Skills how they want, on whomever they want, and whenever they want. They can't go against that on principal alone. You gotta fight them on the mental level more than the physical, you know.]

"That still sounds like it'd be near impossible when he can dictate what powers work and what powers don't work."

[Hmm. Ever hear of the riddle called Room with No Windows?]

Touma raises an eyebrow.

"Can't say I have."

[Okay so, you're in a room with no windows or doors. The only things inside it with you are a table and a mirror. How do you leave the room?]

He thinks on it for a bit before asking for a hint.

"...Well, I assume this isn't one that can be thought out rationally, right?"

[Correctumundo!]

"I'm really not good with these kinds of mind games but...does it have to do with the mirror?"

[Obviously, yeah.]

Touma thinks on it some more but he hadn't really gotten too focused on it. Not just because riddles of that nature just wasn't his thing but also because he had a feeling that Kumagawa wanted to give him the answer to prove some unknowable point.

"Ahhhh, I give up."

[Okay! You look in the mirror and see what you saw. You take the saw and cut the table in half. You put the two halves onto a wall since two halves make a whole. Then you just crawl through the hole!]

"Oh, so you just have to play with the wording a bit to get the answer. But what does that have to do with fighting Skill users?"

[All you have to do is gather what the Skill user's reasons and personality is like to gain an understanding of them. From there, you just have to play with their emotions and reasons like the wording of that riddle until a weakness reveals itself or is otherwise made for you. But given how I've heard about your fighting style, that should be plenty easy for you.]

Touma narrows his eyes at the sudden change of conversational tone.

"What are you talking about?"

[Oh come on! You have to realize by now that those speeches aren't just to make your opponent see how their wrong about whatever it is they are doing. They have been working exceedingly well to mess with their judgment and get them to trip up enough for you to fill the experience gap.]

"That's not what-"

[Well, you probably aren't even doing it on purpose given your personality.]

Touma turns to yell at him out of annoyance.

"I'm not doing that at all, consciously or not! I'm honestly trying to get them to stop deluding themselves into thinking it's alright to do the messed up things they do!"

[So it's just a coincidence that they either stop fighting you or start becoming a lot sloppier in their movements and actions after you speak to them from a position that was gained from hearing them lay out their motivations and observing their actions?]

He couldn't outright deny that. It was true that he simply wanted to help those people out of whatever hell they had found themselves in but who could really say whether or not the methods he used to force them to see their errors was just some subconscious response like the actions of his right hand from time to time? Is it really just his goodwill toward others or is it some rationalized attack pattern carried over from before he lost his memories? The man himself certainly hadn't the answers to that one, much to his chagrin.

"That's..."

[...Well. Whatever. With how you fight, my advice might be useless since none of what I said matters as long as you just sneak up and sucker punch the hell out of whoever is in your way. Miss 50-first-dates still hasn't gotten back to me so I'll just go get Enshuu-chan and see if she can help here.]

"I've been wondering for a bit now but who have you been referring to with those odd names? Do you have a hard time remembering her or something?"

Kumagawa gives Touma a rather odd look that he can't quite figure out.

[First off, you know what 50 First Dates is?]

"No, I just assume it's the same person as she-who-can't-be-remembered. Is that some manga or something?"

[Phew, don't worry about it. It's just some foreign movie. The fact that you don't know just means that we are out of the range of any Terminals. For now at least. Let me make a call real quick.]

Kumagawa clumsily tries punching in the numbers but after nearly running another car off the road, Touma swipes it from him and connects it to the car's hands-free Bluetooth functions.

"There. Just say who the contact is and the car will take care of the rest."

[Holy shit! I knew this city was advanced but that's super cool!]

"Pretty sure that technology isn't limited to just Academy City though."

His uttered comment was ignored as Kumagawa called out the contact and got the connection almost immediately.

[Damn, that was fast Enshuu-chan! Did you really miss me that mu-]

"No but I was about to call you about her anyway so this is just as well."

The voice that came from the speakers was in no way alike the middle-school aged mad scientist girl but it was a familiar one despite that fact.

[Oh hey End-of-the-Century Emperor! Hows it hanging?]

"Sup Kumagawa. Do you mind swinging by and picking Enshuu up? I'm kinda worried about sending her home like this."

Hamazura Shiage's voice was relatively calm but a loud slurred voice and some other agitated ones shrilled over quite a few of his words.

[Guess I don't mind since that was my plan but what's going on over there? I hear a lot of noises.]

"You're going to enjoy this-hey. Am I on speakerphone?"

[Yeah, yeah! I'm driving over to your place in a car I stole with Touma-kun. You know, the friend of yours that I fought back on that bridge. Remember?]

"...I do. Do you remember throwing me off that bridge? Is all of that really something you should be saying on an unsecured line? Hi Touma."

Touma smiles at the meek greeting in the mutual understanding of how frustrating it can be to be roped into something with Kumagawa.

"Hey Shiage."

[To the last half, do you think I care about doing sensible things? It's in my nature as a man nearly old enough to be a wizard to act in total irresponsibility. To the first half, yes, I remember. Pretty sure we called that one even when I came over and All Fiction'd your vision to see past the first layer of clothing for an hour and a half. Or do you not remember?]

"You keep quiet about that goddamnit."

Touma speaks up at that comment.

"...Seriously?"

"Are you questioning my resolve as a man when faced with the temptation of such an ability?"

"Stop making it sound cool! You were just sitting there like some kid with cheap x-ray glasses!"

[But these were x-ray contacts, technically speaking. And they WORKED.]

"You stay out of this! Actually, scratch that, I'll just punch the two of you later for that so just get on with what you wanted from your fellow pervert!"

[Right on, right on. Go on Zura-chan. Ignore the protagonist that's too dense to realize his own desires.]

"...I don't know if I really want to be grouped together with you in that category but whatever. At any rate, we were celebrating some stuff that I uh don't feel too comfortable talking about-"

[So Moogs and Thigh-ai had done some unsavory acts for bargain prices and you were all celebrating the wealth brought in at the expense of someone else's life slash lives. Right?]

"...Some stuff I'm not comfortable talking about-"

Kumagawa turns to Touma with a horribly disguised hush in his tone.

[Called it.]

Hamazura, to his credit, soldiered on through Kumagawa's usual provocation.

"That was around when Enshuu showed up at our door looking for you. Said something about you leaving a letter this morning saying that you were going to take a trip into School Garden to flip some skirts and eat some pastries with a friend of yours."

[Yeah, think I remember that.]

"So Kinuhata offers for her to stay and wait for you here since you'll be likely to be chased out of School Garden and show up wherever there's a congregation of cute girls, to which Enshuu agrees. Now, we had some liquor out for this party. Not a lot or anything but enough to get something going. Your little Kihara says she's never drank before so Mugino, in all her sadistic wisdom, decides to get her plastered. Starts her with a beer, she drinks a bit, then a lot, and the next thing you know everything goes totally insane. Like, she goes mad scientist and starts MacGyvering all kinds of crazy shit."

[You know MacGyver?]

"Only because of Kinuhata and her odd hobby. But anyway once she got drunk, everyone else started to have a good buzz going and they all wanted to rile her up out of some sick curiosity. Though I'll admit it was pretty impressive to see how she handled those damn telemarketers. Even if I'm sure the poor guy is dead."

[Whoa, whoa, whoa. Tell me everything.]

Touma interjects out of interest for the time sensitivity of their situation.

"Kumagawa."

[Shhhh! I need to hear this man! Go on!]

"So the girls start complaining about the telemarketer that had been calling when Enshuu suddenly jumps and shouts, 'PHONE SPIDERS', before tearing the tv remote apart and turning it into some robot spider things. She dials the number for the place and some dude named, 'Rick', picks up."

[Rick? Who is that guy fooling? He could at least just use his real name and say he's some a part of some foreign exchange program or something.]

"Right? Anyway, she sends the spiders through the receiver and, with a LOT of screaming from the other end, I can safely say our telemarketing problems are over.'

[Wait, how does that work?]

"Beats the hell out me. Enshuu just said she had some connection going to the thought patterns of some American Kihara that lives in some castle by the South Jersey Shore or something. Says that she can't get access unless her mental state is precariously unstable, such as when she's drunk off her tiny ass. Really don't know how she can put that much away without hurling. I'm pretty sure I've seen grown men get alcohol poisoning from less than what she's had but she seems fine for how much she's drank. Anyway, she just got done making some kind of serum out of a milkshake and some mayo that'll apparently cause you to explode whenever your blood is exposed to air. She hadn't given a reason for that other than, 'just in case'. So, I'd appreciate it if you came and got her before she drinks the house dry and makes an actual nuke out of the oven and some paperclips."

[Yeah, I'm coming. See you in a bit.]

"See ya."

With that, the extraordinary conversation ended with a dial tone before Touma disconnected the phone from the car's Bluetooth.

"Do you really think it's a good idea to let-"

[YES. Come on man! From the sounds of it she's become mad science at it's best! That sort of stuff will totally come in handy here! Plus we can get info on which of those Board of Directors is after your bud.]

"What makes you think it's them?"

[You said he was a double agent of a sort right? Well, his place gets torched and his sister is presumed dead on official channels. If it was the other side, that would be a super ballsy move to pull off in enemy territory. Not impossible exactly but still damned improbable. So if the likely option is Academy City, then it must be one of those Directors that did it. Enshuu is a Kihara, Kihara's got the underground connections, so all the pieces are there for her to know the likely targets in this one. As long as we get there before your friend does, we've cleared this event!]

"That's...that's actually pretty well thought out. Should I be concerned about that?"

[Dunno. Probably. It's some pretty dang dodgy stuff we're dealing with so you might just die today. When you get to Hell and find it to be chillier than you imagined, that would be a good time to start worrying about mundane stuff like that.]

"I'm only allowed to worry when I'm dead huh? Well that does make some sense, unfortunately. Though, I get the feeling that I won't even be allowed to relax in death anyway."

[The sky is so blue but our future is looking pretty dark.]

"That sounds familiar...where did you hear that from?"

[Wouldn't you like to know. Probably your Momma.]

"Sounds like she's pretty drunk though…do you really think she'll be able to help at all?"

The car stops at a light as Kumagawa frowns.

[Makes me feel pretty lonesome when you ignore an obvious insult like that but yeah. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me to find out she knows a solution for getting instantly sober. If not, boom, All Fiction.]

"Well. All right. As long as we can finally get to saving Tsuchimikado. What do we do when we find that Director before he does?"

An ambiguous smile comes over the driver as he stares ahead at the green light.

[Don't worry about that. One we have Enshuu-chan, I'll be able to go ahead with the perfect plan for putting a stop to that guy's revenge.]

Touma wanted to question that comment but the sight of a small, wavering girl with a duffle bag over one shoulder and a bottle in her hand halts that train of thought with her odd singing.

"Chicken attaaahaaak! Chicken atta- Kumagawa-oniichan! Ohoho! Touma-oniichan too! Now ish a partay!"

They pull up to the curb as she starts to polish off the rest of whatever she had in the bottle. The whole time, Kumagawa had his phone out to commit it all to video for the purpose of embarrassing Enshuu later on.

[Heheheh. This is awesome.]

"...I'm about 99% sure she has nothing to do with your plan and you just wanted to see her drunk."

[You're only figuring that out now? Wait, wait, wait! That was a joke! Please, stay in the car.]

Touma shuts his door with no small amount of hesitation and regret. Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, an Anti Skill officer had just begun to head over to the disheveled girl.

"Excuse me miss? I'm pretty sure you aren't old enough for alcohol, but I already made that mistake with a teacher earlier this week so can I see some ID?"

Touma felt twin emotions of respect and guilt at that moment. Respect for the man that was simply doing his job in caring for the citizens of the city and guilt that he would have to trouble that man with some improvised lie to get her out of that situation and into the car. Before he could do so, however, Enshuu chucks the bottle at the Anti Skill officer's face and jumps into the back of the car through the open back window.

"SHTEP ON IT STEVE! GO, GO, GO!"

"WHAT THE HELL!?"

[But I'm not-]

"JUSHT GO FORE THE PIG GETS UP!"

The car screeches away from the crime as they bolt down the road and around a corner.

"SHE JUST BELTED AN ANTI SKILL OFFICER IN THE FACE! WITH A BOTTLE!"

[Meh, I used All Fiction before we left. Memories and injuries are gone so stop flipping out you drama queen.]

"THAT'S NOT THE PROBLEM HERE!"

[So who the hell is Steve, Enshuu-chan? I wasn't aware you had friends other me. You're making me jealous over here.]

With some frustrated noises that sounded more like he was being strangled than human speech, Touma gives up and silently hits his head against the glovebox repeatedly to quell his emotions.

"Ohhhh, Shworry bout that! I'm still using uh who wash it? Oh yeah! That Weird-ojisan! I'm still using his thought patterns caushe he's so fun! He talks a lot about some guy named Steve. Says he needs his right lung for a hat or something."

[Does sound fun. But we need you sober for some stuff so get your head over here for a sec.]

"Kaaaay!"

Her small head juts out in between the seats and not a moment sooner does Kumagawa slap her forehead with his free hand.

[Boom. All Fiction.]

"OW! What's going on? Why are we in a car? Since when could you drive? Touma-oniichan?"

"Onii-chan?"

[Never mind all that, I'll explain it to you later. Do you know where all the board of director guys are?]

Kumagawa glances at the rearview mirror as Enshuu rubs her forehead with a frown on her face.

"Yeah?"

[Do you know who Tsuchimikado uh, what's the guys first name?]

Touma tries to answer but the answer comes from the backseat.

"Tsuchimikado Motoharu? What about him? Is he why Touma-oniichan is here?"

[Really gotta ask why he deserves an 'onii-chan' honorific but yeah, can you think of any of those directors that might want him gone? To be more specific, which one would torch his apartment to get at his step-sister?]

"Hmm. Give me moment to check some stuff."

[Cool. I need a moment myself to do something too.]

He fumbles with his phone for but a second before Touma takes it again and connects it to the car.

"Who're you calling?"

[Just a sec.]

The phone rings for a few tones before the one on the other end picks up.

"Whatcha need boss?"

[How many times do I have to tell you, Matoi-chan! You need to be right behind me or something whenever I call so we can do the bit!]

"But I can't teleport boss! I wasn't given that kind of Skill!"

[Tch! ...Fine, moving on. Tell the guys to track down, hold on. Deflated pin-cushion man? What's that step-sister's name?]

The one that had been given a name that would be fitting for some D rate superhero sighs loudly.

"Just when I thought you were going to stop with those stupid names. It's Maika."

[Right, Tsuchimikado Maika. Tell them to find her and post a video with her tied up on the Internet. Don't care where as long as it can get spread out fast.]

"Got it. What should we say?"

Kumagawa's grin stretches to the point where Touma half-thinks that his face will split in half.

[Say that if her brother doesn't come to pick her up in the next hour, she'll be food for the worms.]

Kumagawa ends the call and disconnects the phone, all without stumbling once, as Touma gapes at him.

"...I'm...I'm going to keep calm and hear you out because there's no way-"

[What's Tsuchi-chan's motivation in all this, Touma-kun? He wants to get at the people that targeted his sister's life. But why is that so important to him? Sure it's his sister but I think the issue is something slightly subtler than that. He probably puts far more effort into keeping her away from the dangerous side of his life than he does for anything else. The fact that she was targeted at all made all those carefully laid out plans and lies go up in smoke. Therefore, wouldn't the best best way to destroy the part of his heart he lent to that girl be to get her so involved that she won't be able to go back to a normal life anymore?]

Touma had heard enough. He slaps down at his buckle release and lunges for Kumagawa but a firm hand and the feeling of something sharp at his throat stops him from moving any farther.

"You should stay seated, Touma-oniichan. You never know when an accident might happen."

Her cold words force him back into his seat as he glares daggers at Kumagawa.

[That's a pretty scary look! But just how far does that determination go, I wonder? If I wasn't here, you might have found him by now but there's no way you'd be able to stop him. Really stop him I mean. He's already done some horrible stuff today. Do you think some kind words and a soothing pat on the back can pull him from that? Your way is too inefficient for this. We need to cut down to the issue at it's root. Having him see his sister get totally torn from normal life, with no lie good enough to convince her that it'll be alright or that he has nothing to do with it, is the perfect way. Oh, don't worry though! I'll hit him with enough Bookmakers that he will hardly have the will to move a finger, much less commit suicide!]

"Do you really think that I'll just let you go through with that?"

The antagonistic look on Kumagawa's face softens ever so slightly.

[That's what I'm counting on. Enshuu-chan, the door?]

The passenger side door opens and before the sharpness leaves his skin, Enshuu whispers into his ear.

"Remember to tuck and roll, Touma-oniichan."

He scrunches up his eyebrows in confusion just as the next moment has him sent flying out the car from a swift kick by Kumagawa. Thankfully he remembered the dispassionate advice that Enshuu gave him but rolling about on the hard sidewalk after being kicked out of a moving car still hurts like hell no matter what you do. After groaning from the pain for a minute, he props himself up on his elbows.

"Damnit! I should have known that he would do something like that! What am I supposed to do now? Going after Tsuchimikado would be pointless since I'm sure he'll come running once the video hits the internet but I have no idea where the hell he sent Maika..."

His fist clenches till the whites of his knuckles show as he groggily stands. His options were virtually nonexistent here. There was no way he would be able to find that place unless he were to follow Kumagawa's stolen car but Touma lacks the skill required to both hot-wire a vehicle as well as drive it well enough to catch up. He could hijack a car as it was stopped but the security systems on the cars within the city didn't allow for just any novice to pull that off. Never mind the matter of having Anti Skill come after him for it. He hadn't a clue of what to do next and it was killing him.

But then, an unregistered number rang from his phone. At the slightest chance for an opportunity here, he answers.

"Hello?"

A mysteriously seductive voice replies from the other end.

"Hello!~ Hows things with that pseudo little brother of mine?"

Both that question as well as the voice were confusing for him.

"I don't know what you're talking about but I don't have a lot of time-"

A deep sigh echoes into his ear.

"What did Kumagawa do? Actually, never mind that. I can take a guess based on his personality. He's going to kill your friend's step-sister, right?"

It was odd for him. Despite not knowing who this person was, he didn't think they were involved with what Kumagawa was doing. It was clear that she knew him and it couldn't be mere coincidence that she would just 'guess' Kumagawa's actions but even so there was no doubt of her character. Perhaps he had known her before he lost his memories, he thought initially. Any sort of questions along that train of thought would have to wait, however.

"Yeah, that's right. Can you help me?"

Her soft laughter answers him.

"I realize you don't remember but who do you think I am?~ I found out where that step-sister was awhile back in case this happened. While you run over there, I'll tell you _exactly what, without a margin of error, it is that Kumagawa is going to do._ "

* * *

It had taken him 45 minutes to get to the strange building in District 6, where Maika was sent to. The search for the place wouldn't have been so hard if the place wasn't already a maze of places built solely for entertainment. When he had asked about what the building looked like after being given it's address, his mystery caller simply laughed and replied that it's the strangest building in the entire district. She certainly wasn't wrong.

It was impossible to tell what the architect that designed the place was going for. There were Roman marble pillars, the roof had a Chinese Imperialistic style to it, on top of the sloped roofing was a dome reminiscent of the Taj Mahal, and the front doors were like two giant barn doors that automatically opened. There was so many differences, both geographically as well as culturally, in every single piece of the building that it was as though some god of architecture had gotten drunk and used what was thrown up on the blueprints for this abomination. Apparently it was supposed to be some sort of eccentric arcade.

The games they had there were all made by various game companies to have a place to showcase their more experimental work. Some of the games didn't have an end goal. Some barely even counted as games. But since they were all free to the public, it's not like people could complain about it too much.

"I don't even know how I'm supposed to sneak into here. This place is too complex for me to even know if what I'm looking at is the front entrance or not but either way, it's a good thing the place seems otherwise closed. It would get even worse if those Skill users could just mix into the crowd of regular people."

According to the girl that called him earlier, Tsuchimikado likely chose this place because it was closed and was also very hard to find, even when you know the address. It didn't help either that some of the games inside could connect to your phone without you knowing and screw with all sorts of things, making things like GPS nearly worthless when you got within a mile of the building. It was sort of like those computer games that would be able to read your save files, whether you deleted them or not, or that could create files for you to find on your desktop. It was meant to be something clever where the characters in-game could call you or you could find that you might be able to give them buffs by playing a song you enjoy. It's neat but many of the arcade's neighbors complain about it quite often.

Touma ignores what appears to be the front entrance in favor of a side alley, hopeful for another entrance. The side was very different from the front. In all appearances, it was more like any other building in the city.

"Did they just spend all their effort on the front and decide the rest was too much effort? Guess it's good they got lazy. I'd rather not have to go searching for some trick door here. Although, even something like that might be fine to waste time on. If she's right, then things won't really start until Tsuchimikado meets his sister. But I still can't let him see her yet."

He finds a side door and goes to open it but stops on seeing an odd symbol next to the door.

"Huh? Is that...supposed to be a zero? No, it's shaped differently."

It was simple in design. An octagon with a large slash going diagonally past the lines of the octagon on both sides.

"...It looks like the head of Kumagawa's screws."

Which would mean that his Skill users were definitely inside. But more concerning than that was where it was placed. Touma doubted that Tsuchimikado would go through the front, so this side entrance should be another avenue of thought for that double spy to follow. The symbol, however, made it seem like this could be a trap. They might have all sorts of unknown things lined up the way behind this door to slow whoever entered. Or perhaps not. It could just be a Red Herring. It could also be entirely coincidental. It could mean nothing or it could mean everything to the ones that wanted to rescue Maika.

Despite the high level trap in front of him, Touma chuckles softly to himself.

"You've really rubbed your influence off on these guys huh, Kumagawa? Though, if it was you, then there's no way you would have bothered to put in the effort to think so far ahead when you've already worked so hard to lure Tsuchimikado here. Well, I suppose that goes for _me too_."

He unhesitatingly opens the door and steps into the darkness within. It seems like this was something of a maintenance passageway due to how dull the lighting was. He follows it for a bit of a ways until he finds another door. Upon opening it, he finds a wide space lit only by the backlights of the arcade games within. Touma crouches as he enters, silently closing the door behind him. Voices come from a distance, sending Touma frantically for back of the ticket counter desk. From what he could tell without looking, one was a girl around his age while the other must've been a male teacher judging by how old he sounded.

"What's with that girl anyway? Since when did Kumagawa have a freaking Kihara around?"

"He mentioned her before, weirdo. Just keep quiet so we can at least pretend like we give a shit about keeping those two out of here."

The words weren't lost on Touma. His mystery caller had said to be careful because Kumagawa's intent wasn't just on getting Tsuchimikado there but to drag Touma there as well. The reasons for that were unknown even to that girl who seemed to know quite a lot about Kumagawa's personality. Presumably this was all just a feint for him to go somewhere else and do something that would go against both Tsuchimikado's and Touma's wishes. She had suggested that he just go after Kumagawa in that case but there was no way he could just leave things alone here. Whatever was going to happen to Maika, Touma knew now she wasn't to be killed. Even so, it would destroy the lives of his friends if he were to chase after Kumagawa. He had to throw those plans off enough to mitigate the damage.

"Though, I swear I'll punch his lights out the moment I see him."

Touma mutters this promise to himself as he reaches around the top of the desk for something to use. He had no idea of what abilities they had but he had already experienced a Skill with the power to make Imagine Breaker functionally useless today. He had to bring something unexpected with him to hopefully throw them off even a bit so he can close the gap between the oddities that they bring with them. All that he manages to grab is a phone with a corded handset but at least that's something.

His head peeks around the corner of the desk for but a moment before blurs past his face and forces him back. No sooner had he pulled away does another blur come rushing down on him from above. He rolls away from that one but a boot follows after, slamming into his ribs. Touma sputters some coughs as he eyes his assailant but despite the leg being there in front of him, the rest of the body was hidden somewhere else.

"What? Is that some kind of weird invisibility? Crap!"

From around the side, a disembodied arm comes flying around the leg with a fist aimed for Touma's face. He successfully dodges but to avoid being pinned there, he runs out from his now useless hiding spot. In between some of the machines stands a high-school aged girl, shoulder length hair and a school uniform, and a man who looked old enough to be her father. The girl's eerily clear, glowing eyes follow his every moment while the man, who was currently a floating torso with his arms and legs gone, smiles at his attempts at escape.

"Sorry kid but you aren't getting past this point. Your friend's reunion with his sister isn't to be interrupted. Boss's orders."

Touma stops where he stands, the man's four limbs hovering nearby him.

"...Why do you guys follow what Kumagawa says? You have to realize that he's just using you. I don't know what he had told you but-"

"We know that. He told us as much after he gave us these Skills."

The girl now speaks up.

"It's fine if he uses us. We used him in kind, after all."

"For what? What could possibly make you need someone that carelessly ruins lives the way he does?"

The man's smile flips as the girl's eyes gain a melancholic look to them.

"We're both some pretty useless folks. This guy here was a teacher that got fired on some hemmed up molestation charges when he called out some girls that were bullying kids in my class. When I found out, I tried confronting them myself but they just used their esper powers to beat me down in a place where there wasn't any security cameras. I only have a Level 1 Aero Hand ability you know? Though, that's only just barely within the definition for Level 1. Compared to those Level 3s, neither of us don't stand a chance on our own."

"You couldn't just go to Anti Skill?"

The man's frown deepens in disgust as he spits out his feelings.

"You think we hadn't tried? Those bastards refused to even investigate because we had no 'real' proof. They won't believe a criminal like me or a girl like her when it comes to those high level brats. They've got the right amount of pull with the school's board to be effectively untouchable. But, Kumagawa personally helped us. He gave me my Skill after he gave one to Rei and told us to do as we will with them. My Skill, Arm and a Leg, isn't much on it's own. All I can do with it is detach my limbs and move them independently of my body. But that is pretty useless when my limbs are just inching across the floor while my torso lies defenseless on the ground."

The girl, Rei, smiles at her teacher's self-defeatist comments.

"Yeah. My Skill is better by comparison. Fairy Vision lets me see things at a far broader spectrum than normal humans. I can see through objects, have thermal vision, or even zoom in on distant objects. But that isn't much on it's own either. My Aero Hand didn't get leveled up just because I got that Skill. The most I can manage is 4 points of propellant power. Though, that's just on it's own. My Fairy Vision and Aero Hand. Sensei's Arm and a Leg. Combined we were able to humiliate those girls by bringing evidence of the bullying to Anti Skill and had them get kicked out of school regardless of their rank."

The teacher looks at Touma with an apologetic gaze.

"With that, I was able to get my job back. We owe Kumagawa for helping us. I'm sorry if that means hurting you and those other two kids but...if it's what Kumagawa wants, then I know it must have some reason behind it. You might not believe it but-"

"Oh, _I'_ _ve_ _know_ _n_ _that much already._ "

The two across from him were shocked at Touma's strained words.

"Well, I definitely had to calm down first and think it through but I think I have come to a general understanding of his motivations. Though, I can only use such noncommittal phrases like, 'I think', because of how often my understanding changes. I know there's a good intent for his maddening methods. It's...not too dissimilar from my way of doing things, honestly. He just wants to see misfortunate people happy. His way of going about that is twisted beyond belief but I know that however he's going to have Tsuchimikado confront his sister, it'll be to stop him from doing something he'll regret. Even so, I can't say it's for the best. It's definitely the opposite knowing him. Rather than simply pointing out what's wrong about their motivations and letting those people choose their own path, he brute forces an understanding of it on the people he saves. I know I do the same but that's where the similarities end. He preys on the weaknesses of others and makes them face that ugly side no one ever acknowledges themselves until the reality they've built around themselves lays in ruin. Regardless of whether or not the person is right or wrong, good or evil, or whatever, he unilaterally sees anyone that challenges his reality destroyed. It's selfish beyond anything I can think of but even so...I can't deny the end results."

The hand holding the receiver tightens it's grip.

"I understand what he does and why he does it but that doesn't mean that I accept it. There's just no way I can accept this 'the end justifies the means' crap! I refuse to go along with this situation where my friends have to sink down that far into the abyss he creates just so they can be saved!"

The student-teacher duo respond to his speech by narrowing their eyes at him before unleashing their powers on him. A right hook whizzes by Touma's head as he darts for where they stand. Two legs shoot for his chest to provide some kind of stopping power to slow their charging foe but he dodges at the last second, turning with their flight path and tosses the end of the wired handset with the receiver at one of the legs. Once it had gotten wrapped around the limb, he uses the momentum to spin it all the way around and just before he had begun to face the pair again, he lets go of the cord. With a great, loud smack, Rei is sent crashing into one of the machines, knocking her out cold. Without the esper generated air propelling them, the teacher and all his parts fall flat onto the ground.

"Hey! Rei, wake up! Damnit, you really want your friend to destroy himself? Kumagawa has it set up so that he'll be fine again afterwards so why are you fighting this so hard?"

"Because I don't want him getting hurt in the first place. Plus, he wasn't ever accounting for his plan to work in the first place. I'm sure now that my being here is what he was really planning for."

Touma turns to walk away but the voice of the previously assumed to be unconscious Rei stops him.

"I suppose I can give that an A for effort but when it comes down to it, I can only give you a D- for the logic you used, Kamijou-kun."

It was nagging at him but if he could remember when he had meet Misaki in the body she had borrowed, the effect would be similar. This was no longer the brusque, young voice of the girl he had fought just now. It was the voice of vast experience, elegance, and the subtleties of madness.

"You're almost as equally twisted in your own means to achieve the end you desire. Your potential honestly scares me a bit. Maybe I'll see this whole shit story go up in flames for the peace of mind that not having two Kumagawa's around can provide me."

He turns around to face the now standing Rei, or whoever it was that was using her body. If the difference wasn't apparent before, it was now as he looked upon her face. The teacher, somehow, had been knocked out without Touma being aware. In fact, after looking at the rest of his surroundings, it was like time had somehow been frozen.

"...Are you another one of those Terminals?"

She laughs quietly.

"That deserves at least a B for how close you are to the answer but I'm afraid you still don't quite make the passing mark. If you want a hint, then lets say that I'm the source of those Terminals."

"Source? What are you talk- Ajimu."

Touma's eyes go wide as he recalls what Kumagawa had said. There was no need to read any further than that when faced with the shear number of powers before him. But he couldn't think of what he could do in such a situation. This was someone that even Kumagawa couldn't truly beat on his own despite the casualty destroying Skill he has. Touma wracked his brains until they hurt but- nothing. With the sort of anxiety that comes from being inside the eye of an apocalyptic storm, he silently gauges Ajimu's expression. The composed smile strains under his gaze before she bursts into laughter.

"Hahahahaha! My, you get worked up so easily! Why would you think there would be a final boss fight here when the story isn't even halfway through? Anyway, there's no need to be so formal with me. Just call me Anshin'in-san."

Touma's body couldn't relax in this kind of situation when his mind was fueling it's nerves with the anxiety brought on from an overclocked imagination at just what she could be capable of but ever so slightly, his face unwrinkled itself.

"You aren't here to attack me?"

Ajimu waves her hand back and forth in front of her face.

"No, of course not! Even if I wanted to, the reality this story revolves around is way too fragile for me to be going through that sort of needless effort. What I'm here for, Kamijou-kun, is to negotiate."

"Negotiate? What are you talking about?"

"You wish to save your friends but that right hand of yours isn't enough to get there on time. Ah, I should add that I have used a Skill to ensure time is stopped so we can talk for as long as I'm able to stay here for. But back to the topic at hand, the Skill users ahead as well as what's waiting for that siscon friend of yours is simply too much for just punches and some words. What I can offer is a Skill that can used regardless of that hand as well as being perfect for that disposition of yours. You won't have to worry about facing any kind of enemy with it!"

Honestly, he was personally against gaining any other type of power right now. Even without considering just what kind of mephistophilian deal she would broker, he already had too much on his plate without having to worry about some other force going on in his body. But he did have to pry some kind of information out of her. Considering her feelings for the world in regards to her self, according to Kumagawa at least, it would be in both Touma's as well as the rest of the world's best interests if he were to see a glimpse into her plans.

"And what do you want in return? I doubt that this is all out of the kindness of your heart."

"That hurts me! You can't just use such cruel language with a dainty lady such as myself."

Her outrage is punctuated by a pout, much to Touma's chagrin.

"Dainty?"

It could hardly be called within the blink of an eye. It was all done in such a way that he had to wonder if she had simply just been right there all along. But Touma had no room in his mind to think of that. All that ran through his head was the cold, baleful eyes before him. In other words, Ajimu had moved across the room and stands a scant few centimeters from Touma's face.

"You should watch your mouth you little shit."

He jumps back out of instinct and hits his back against the counter, expecting her to follow up with something more, but the girl does nothing. The frozen over daggers that came from her only intensified for awhile before she lets out a great sigh.

"Ahhhh. Sorry about that. I couldn't help but provoke you a bit when the chance to get what I want is right in front of me."

"Chance? At what, exactly?"

He couldn't understand her meaning. Kumagawa had mentioned that she was suicidal but couldn't die due to her powers. Did she expect that Touma could do it? There was absolutely no way that he could. It was less a matter of whether he'd be comfortable with killing her as much as it was being able to. Honestly, he doubted that he could negate even the smallest fraction of her Skills with just Imagine Breaker. But Ajimu paid his questioning no mind and just mumbled to herself.

"Geeze...even though I know that it would be useless as I am now, I still went and tried for it. Well, never you mind all that! That's just something we can talk about in the next story arc. Though odds are it would be more like in about 4 or 5 months when the author decides to stop dragging his feet and blaming everything on writer's block but whatever. Back to what I was saying though, what's your decision? Will you try to keep on as you are? Or will you accept a much earned power up?"

"...You already know the answer, I think."

"Well, I suppose so. But is siding with Kumagawa really alright by you?"

"...What are you talking about?"

"Come now! He's already hurt your friends before just because he didn't like you and here he is doing it all over again just so he can 'save' that siscon friend of yours. He's the sort that mind breaks someone just for looking his way. If you believe that he's doing anything other than what he wants for the sake of what he wants, then you are as much a fool as he is."

"And you aren't the same?"

"Touche. But there is still a difference between his and my general lack of care towards the lives we muck about with. He goes out of his way to ruin people. I, on the other hand, only do that to the people that purposefully come my way. Even then, I still have a pretty hands off policy when it comes to their lives. Why would I bother with the effort there? I promise you that if you help me kick Kumagawa from this story, then I won't bother with anyone else here."

"Until you find a way to kill yourself, you mean."

"...Ha ha. So he told you, did he? Well, I'd be lying if I said it doesn't concern you but I have taken great pains to ensure that my death will have no effect on this story at all!"

"Maybe. Maybe it'll turn out like that and everything will just go back to normal but-"

"But you're uncomfortable with assisting with my desire for death?"

"That's a part of it but it's mainly because I can't trust someone that sees this world and everyone in it as mere characters in a story. I'm sure you aren't conceited enough to exclude yourself from that but that just makes me want to stop you even more. If you can't value yourself and others as being human beings in reality then I doubt you'd really care whether or not you take this world with you."

"That still doesn't detract what I said about Kumagawa."

"It doesn't but I'd rather side with the devil I know than the one I don't."

"Even at the cost of your friend's lives?"

"If he didn't care at all, he wouldn't have bothered doing everything he could to tell me what he was going to do beforehand. Kumagawa is far too good at lying to not be able to come up with something that could mislead me. He might be exactly the kind of bastard you say he is but he's not the sort that would unhesitatingly sacrifice people for his own sake."

"And thus, you have proven my point. Have it your way. But I won't be so accommodating towards your disposition next time."

"Before you go, can I ask you something?"

"Hm?"

"Why...why do want to die so badly?"

"...Think about it. I'm just some character in a story. Even worse at this point, I'm a character in a mediocre fan made crossover. Add that to the fact that I've been living longer than you could imagine, there's little wonder that I'd want to just die already. I know that you can't understand nor accept that way of thinking now but you'll know that pain soon enough."

Before he could ask what she meant, Rei's body hits the floor as it's uninvited guest makes her exit. Those last words perturbed him quite a bit but he had no choice but to move on.

* * *

Enshuu Kihara sits within a viewing room overlooking an arena a few floors up from where Touma had entered in from. The arena itself is used for an experimental mecha game that relied heavily on holograms. It was originally going to be far more accessible to the masses than this, to the point where players could battle it out on the streets of Academy City using their phones and VR equipment, but due to budgeting issues, it was canceled early on into it's development. The arcade still had the prototype for the game for people to play it regardless.

From behind Enshuu, a girl walks up. She stands on the shorter side in terms of height with long, blue-dyed hair and a school uniform on.

"It's good that Kumagawa-oniichan isn't here. He would have gotten to worked up over seeing you and all the other girls in their school uniforms. So, how is Touma-oniichan doing, Matoi-chan?"

"He just beat the two we left on guard duty by the west wing. I can't tell for sure but something had interrupted my abilities for a moment. Well way less than a moment, it was more like less than a second but still..."

Enshuu leans back in her chair to look Matoi in the eyes.

"Hm. Hm. I could make a few guess but if Touma-oniichan is still alive and on the move then, we don't have time to worry about that now. Go get Reality Faxer and have him start sending people down to stall for time."

"How far should they all go to do that?"

"Preferably without hospitalizing him but this is Touma-oniichan we're talking about here. He's the only one I know that can match Kumagawa-oniichan's stubbornness so have them go all out from the start."

Matoi nods and leaves the room. Enshuu turns to the girl seated next to her.

"You're up, Maika-san. Head down and have that talk you wanted to have with your brother."

* * *

Touma runs through the halls with his eyes darting this way and that. There was no way that those two downstairs were all there was. But honestly, he wasn't too worried about it. Those two from before certainly had strange abilities but it could hardly compare to anyone else he's had to fight. At this point he was almost positive that Skill users like Ajimu and Kumagawa were outliers among their kind. If it's just two or three more of those weirdos then he could definitely get there before anything happened.

 _It would be great if that was true, huh?_

Touma whips his head around at the sound of the voice but finds nothing other than laughter.

 _Sorry to say but you aren't going to find me. My Skill, It's Your Problem, is pretty convenient in letting me stay a fair distance away. Oh and no need to bother with that right hand of yours. There's nothing like an AIM field being used to connects us so your negation won't help no matter how many times you slap around your head._

He tries anyway but finds the effort to indeed be fruitless.

"Okay you have some form of telepathy, so what? The best you can do is get a song stuck in my head while I head over there and stop you guys."

The voice continues it's laughter as he runs onward.

 _Ahahaha! Are you just trying to bluster your way around the fact that you really did slap at your empty noggin? Haaa. It doesn't matter. This isn't really me using telepathy. If anything, I'm forcing you to use telepathy to speak with me. My Skill makes it so anyone I choose is forced to acknowledge my existence and I theirs. Right now I can see and hear everything you do just as you can right now for me._

The walls ahead of him distort and sizzle with arcs of lightning zapping this way and that.

 _Which of course, makes it very easy for coordinating with my comrades in sending them straight to you._

The material coming off the walls morphs into the forms of several people. As the first one finishes forming, Touma darts into a nearby room to escape.

"What the hell? Were those some kind of constructs?"

 _I'm not really obligated to say but that's the Skill of one of those comrades I mentioned. Reality Faxer. It allows him to scan anything or anyone and then immediately send them to wherever he wishes. Speaking of, heads up._

Touma immediately looks above him with his right hand outstretched to whatever threat was coming his way. There was nothing but ceiling. A noise from the other side of the room catches his attention as he instinctively swats away several screws that fly from the wall.

 _Hahahahahaha! You are so gullible! Why would you honestly follow what I say?_

"Damn it!"

The wall next to him is liquidized by an unknown Skill as the others outside come rushing into the room. A giant of a man swings his mountain of a fist down on Touma who decides to match with his own. As the hit lands, the man shatters to pieces with three boys of the later end of elementary school in terms of age, sitting on each others shoulders, come tumbling down to the ground. There's no time for him to worry as an old man comes for his throat with a giant scythe. He ducks under that but a beam of white light hits Touma in the stomache, sending him flying for the opposite side of the room.

 _If it was just one or two different Skills, you might be able to manage. You do have a knack for learning on the go from what I hear. But you can't quite cope with several powers, each of vastly different characteristics, all at once can you?_

Touma can do nothing but cough violently from having the wind taken from him.

 _Sorry but you just plain can't do anything without the proper information to fight back. Maybe if you had more time to analyze things, you could come up with a plan but we're just here to hold you back a bit. Don't worry though! We'll allow you to meet with your friends in another ten to fifteen minutes or so. Can't quite speak to their condition though._

The old man leans on his scythe as he chuckles.

"Matoi-chan. I know we're here to play the role of the villain but there's no need to provoke him so much at this point. Or are you just trying to get the most fun out of this because of your Skill forcing you to the back lines?"

Everyone else laughs along amicably as Matoi fumes. They all have a bond that is nigh unbreakable, that much Touma can see. Considering how Kumagawa had gathered them, this would be expected. Hardships can bind even the most antagonistic of people together in a way that next to none could hope to stand up against. Matoi was right about the lack of information being his weakness but that was nothing next to a close-knit group with a shared goal. Even if he could understand what each of their Skills were as well as the downsides to them, he didn't stand a chance against them. The fact that he is so completely outmatched has reminded Touma of something that he rather didn't want to think of. But he was left out of options.

"...Matoi-san, was it?"

If there's nothing else he had learned from Kumagawa, it was that even the strongest of trusts could be broken rather simply.

 _There's no need to use honorifics with me but what is it? Do you have some words to try to convince us to let you go?_

He looks up at the ceiling as he speaks to Matoi.

"No. I know that your trust in Kumagawa isn't so cheap as to be ruined with just a speech."

 _So what then? Are you going to stubbornly fight on?_

"Of course but that's not what I want to talk about."

 _Oh?_

"You mentioned that Reality Faxer can somehow scan and send people wherever right? How does the process work exactly?"

 _Hmm. Well, it's not like it would help you any to know. Not unless you want to stick that hand in the middle of them coming in and become a murderer. Once they've been scanned, they have their body's destroyed instantly so that their consciousness can be sent along to the other side to fill what is essentially a new body composed of the atoms from whatever happens to be around._

Touma smiles ambiguously as he chuckles to himself.

"Huh. That's interesting."

 _Well, I'm not going to hold my breath for you. What?_

"How are the bodies destroyed?"

 _His Skill disintegrates them, I think. Oh? Yeah...yeah Reality Faxer disintegrates them. But do you plan on letting me into whatever the hell you're thinking of? Because I don't feel like explaining anything more than-_

"No, no. That's fine. You've given me all the information I need. Tell me one last thing though."

His head drops down from it's tilt as he stares the other Skill users in the eye.

"How do you know for sure that these guys are real?"

Everyone in the room looks around at each other in confusion but otherwise they just laugh at his words. That much is perfect. Though even so, Touma has his reservations about what is to come.

 _What? Have you snapped or something?_

"Bear with me here. They get scanned, destroyed, and then they have their bodies recreated and filled with the consciousness that was copied over. Which means that no part of them comes from the originals of themselves. Who's to say whether or not the Reality Faxer guy hadn't added or taken away parts of you he didn't like personally?"

One of the boys laughs at Touma's accusations.

"What are you talking about? There's no way Seki would do that!"

"Of course he wouldn't do that on purpose but that isn't the point. What is there to say that you all are the ones that were destroyed? How do you know that you even existed in the first place? Your memories and bodies are entirely fabricated based on what some absurd power had supposedly copied over from your previous forms. Which brings me to the part that I find interesting about all this, my doubt that Seki knows what his Skill is doing to his friends. Don't you think so too, Matoi?"

 _C-calm down Seki! Calm down already!_

Looking around him, Matoi and Seki weren't the only ones affected. Between this new revelation and having Matoi's feelings rack around their already precarious heads, the Skill users here were in an utter disarray. He figured that once Seki had realized just how evil his power could be, he'd lose his mind for a bit. Which of course would make Matoi rather distraught over her friend but this also had the side effect of forcing her current mental state on all the others due to her own Skill.

What he had done was less in line with how Touma, himself, would deal with such a situation and more with how Kumagawa would have acted in his stead. That action only reinforced what Ajimu had said about the parallels between the two but there was no time to dwell on it. Touma was far too desperate at this point to stop Tsuchimikado from becoming anymore broken than what he already was.

One of the Skill users had noticed Touma standing back up and pointed a flashlight in his direction. As he turns the light on, Touma swings his right hand out horizontally as though swatting aside a bug. The light makes contact with his hand and forcefully knocks the light away from him as the Skill user's flashlight is knocked from his hand.

Touma attempts to bolt out but the old man from before comes rushing in like the Grim Reaper incarnate. Touma puts a little more energy into his next step to get into the old man's guard as he grabs onto the scythe's handle but almost finds himself reflexively letting go from the sudden cutting pain that shot through his arm. Whatever ability the scythe had, he gritted his way through the pain while he gives the old man a savage left straight.

He keeps on running for the open side of the room when the floor turns to mush. Touma whips his head around to see a wincing teen gripping into the floor with both hands. Before he could do anything however, one of the boys that made up the illusionary giant swings out with a long, muscled arm for his gut. Touma ducks under the arm while swinging his right hand out behind him as he steps forward, shattering the illusion with enough force to propel his body into a slide along the viscous ground. The teen holding the ground notices this and lets go but not before Touma leaps up. The swamp below turns solid once more, sealing the other Skill users in the room by their feet. As he flies through the air, Touma cocks a fist and superman punches the teen in the face, sending him crashing into the opposite side of the hall outside.

The one that had used light as weapon from before had retrieved his flashlight from nearby, just before the ground solidified. He tries to swing the beam of light into Touma's back but he instinctively grabs onto it and shakes the flashlight on the other end from his attacker's grasp before smacking the boy in the face with it.

With that resounding slap echoing n the room, the fight had ended. With that, he currently had no more obstacles between him and Tsuchimikado Motoharu and his sister.

"I still don't know why exactly you needed to keep me here but I'm done playing along to your tune, Kumagawa. As soon as I'm done here, I'll prove to you just how little of a damn hero I am by punching you clear across this city just to satisfy my own anger!"

* * *

It both surprised him as well as unnerved him when he came across no other Skill users on the way to the arena. This variable only told him that they didn't need to waste the effort anymore.

"Please. Just let me make it!"

Touma's heart hits his stomach hard as he bursts into the large room. To his right, was a bloodied Tsuchimikado. To the left was a masked girl in a maid outfit. They both turn to his appearance.

"...Hey...Kamiyan. Guess you wound up seeing through that lie about the magician in School Garden after all."

The double agent was clearly worn down to his next to last breath.

"Heh. Suppose I have that Kumagawa bastard to thank for that. If I wasn't so sure that he'd steer clear of something as troublesome as my situation, I would have done everything in my power to ensure that he didn't. But here I am, fighting against some random Skill user and now you're thrown into the mix."

The wounds were less due to external influences, from the initial look, as it was the fact that he had clearly been using up a dangerous amount of his life to cast the magic that would conflict directly with the esper power within him.

"Though that's the thing about foolproof plans, isn't it? It always underestimates the ingenuity of a true fool."

"...How the hell do you think your being so casual about this affects me right now?"

Tsuchimikado tiredly remains silent. Not out of any contempt but because he knows the exact answer to his friend's answer.

"You've thrown me into a totally fabricated scenario just to keep me out of it. You burned down your apartment, faked your sister's death, and sent her to some random place to keep her out of it. I don't know about whatever else you did to keep that act of revenge up so you could get at the person who targeted your sister but I can see what it's doing to you. But you're fine with that right?"

Tsuchimikado's expression darkens in anger.

"So what if I am? Are you going to lecture me on how I'm affecting the ones I care about by going through with all this, just like that naive girl over there? You really are-"

"Of course I'm going to go after that!"

In comparison, Touma's rage had grown far larger than his friend's. The sheer quantity of fury being directed at him silences any other words from Tsuchimikado.

"Yeah, I'm naively, stubbornly, and selfishly shoving my ideals down your throat! I don't care if admitting that is just repeating those traits of mine! My childishness doesn't erase what you've done to your sister and I! So I'll just spit your own damn words right back, so fucking what!? Do you really think that calling me out on my downsides will make you right here? Two wrongs don't make a right, but two rights don't prevent the next wrong!"

"...You don't think I don't already know that?"

"Obviously you don't. If you did, you would have realized who that girl is over there!"

"What're you-"

"That's clearly your goddamned, precious sister that you've nearly killed yourself fighting over moron!"

Tsuchimikado's face goes slack. It wasn't as though he hadn't realized this fact until Touma had screamed it. He was just trying to look away from that ugly truth. He looks over at the masked girl with a look of hopeless determination for seeing his actions through, despite the situation.

"...Maika."

The girl doesn't respond verbally, though her body shakes at the mention of her name as she slowly takes the mask off. Maika's eye's stare holes into the floor before her. Silence reigns in this moment, giving none of the three parties involved any room to speak until she finally glances back over her brother.

"So it's true then."

"...I-"

"Stop. Just what part of me made you think that I wanted you to go so far for my sake!? Did you think that I would smile on at your gravestone when you had sacrificed yourself for me!? There's no way I'd be alright with losing you!"

Her sorrowful cries dominate the flow of conversation. Her will replacing the previous silence as sovereign.

"I knew all along. Maybe not, no, definitely not as far as to what you were doing but I knew that you were doing dangerous things every time you left our apartment with that fake smile you'd wear out the door. But I thought that no matter what, you'd always come back home and we could go back to our normal life together. Laughing and having fun together just as we always had."

She looks back down at her feet as she clenches her fists.

"...But you never intended to come back this time, did you? You really were going off to die, weren't you?"

Tsuchimikado's eye's dart away from her as he speaks.

"N-"

But that lie could never be allowed as long as Touma stood there.

"Don't. You can't keep running at this point. Just tell her the whole truth."

"...Yes. I was planning on taking that adage about revenge to heart and letting that second grave be mine."

The one that was the only successful magician-epsper hybrid, the one that had constantly betrayed the entire world, bore his true face for one of the few times in his entire life.

"The truth is...I'm a spy. I'm a magician that was sent into this scientific city to keep an eye on the goings on here. That was the reason why you had been adopted as my sister to begin with. But I was found out by the Board Chairman rather quickly. At that moment, I had to become a double agent just to survive."

Tsuchimikado's words come pouring out now that the levy holding back all his lies had been broken.

"To tell you the truth, I didn't really care about you when you were first assigned to me. You were just an asset to enforce the cover I had. Honestly, I had felt more disappointment than concern for you when that cover was blown after just 36 hours. Back when you had taken interest in moving in with me, I had thought it was because of your background as an orphan that made it so you simply wanted to become more useful to me as a defensive instinct stemming from not wanting to become abandoned. But that wasn't it at all. That's just a result of your kindness. Despite the fact that you had to have known that I was just using you the same as one would some tool, you were so kind to me. You became less of a liability to me and more of...a treasured part of my life that I didn't want taken from me no matter what. Eventually, my job changed less from ensuring my own survival and more about making sure you kept the life you had. Time has a funny way of changing a man. Before I came here, I had set my life up to never have to rely on or trust anyone. I never cared for anyone nor had anyone cared for me."

Not once had he looked away from his sister since he began to bare his heart out to her. But now, more than ever, does he stare on at Maika. Despite having forced himself to betray not just her but his own sworn code of never involving her into this side of his life, he soldiers on to give the only one in his life that he cared for the complete, unadulterated truth.

"When I found out that you had been targeted by the dark side of this city, I was totally consumed by my rage. I knew it wasn't anything personal against you. I knew that it was all just to attack me. But none of that mattered at all. They had stepped into the territory that I had called home. I knew that I wouldn't survive my quest for revenge but that didn't matter to me either. If I died, then that just meant that they wouldn't have any more reason for trying to hurt you. I knew that you wouldn't be happy with my death….but that, just as everything else, didn't matter to me. If my death could secure your life, that's all that mattered to me."

Maika's body shakes in wrath even more than ever.

"...Weren't you just about to tell off Kamijou-kun about his selfishness?"

"Yeah."

"You really think whatever words you had for him would have been cool when you were prepared to commit to such a selfish act?"

"…."

"You're an idiot."

"Yeah. I am. Sorry."

Tsuchimikado wearily walks toward his sister.

"Sorry? How convenient. All you have to do is say 'sorry' and it's expected that the other party has to accept that regardless of how they feel. Do you expect that? That I'll just tearfully accept your apology because you think I'm oh so kind?"

"Sorry."

"Stop saying that! I don't care if you have nothing else to say! Just stop saying that you're sorry!"

"I really am sorry."

Maika snaps her gaze away from her limping brother.

"Why? Is it just because you feel bad about what you've done?"

By now, Tsuchimikado stands no more than a foot away.

"That is a part of it. But really, since the beginning of all this, I've been sorry for the fact that I had to get you involved at all with this side of me."

"...Do you really feel that way?"

Maika, for the first time since her brother had spoken back, looked up from the floor back at Tsuchimikado.

"If that's really the case...then promise me that you won't just keep me out of that part of you. Promise me that no matter how dangerous it is that you'll tell me everything."

"...I can't do that. I know, as well as you do now, that if something else comes up, I'll just keep you in the dark again."

Maika's tears pour even more in frustration at Tsuchimikado's stubbornness.

"But...I can promise that I won't hide that side from you any longer. If I have to serve whichever side in a way that'll risk my life, I'll tell you about it beforehand. I can't tell you about situations that directly involve you but...this much I can do for you, Maika. If it means that you'll stay by me, I won't hide any more of my life from you than I already have. You probably won't accept tha-"

In a way that had exceeded his low expectations, Maika had sprung herself into his chest.

"Of course I'll accept that! I wouldn't let such an idiotic brother go over something like this! If you lie to me for my sake again, I'll just have to call you on it! So don't go off and try to die for me, okay?"

Tsuchimikado didn't know what to do. He really hadn't seen any way that his sister would accept and forgive him at this point. Clearly one half of that couldn't be met but it was just as apparent that Maika was going to accept that treacherous side of him in spite of everything. In the face of such true love and kindness, that double agent who had betrayed everyone else in his life had no choice but to return the embrace of the one person that he cared for more than anyone else.

As the two adoptive siblings reconcile their differences, Touma smiles on grimly. This was all going according to Kumagawa's plan. Which could only mean that the crowned prince of Academy City's misfits was moving right along with whatever it was that he had wanted to do with Touma out of the way. A fact that had been frightening the right hand wielding teen all the while. If he would set up such a scenario for the sole purpose of distracting Touma, then what Kumagawa truly wanted must be even worse.

Small footsteps come from behind Touma.

"...Where is he then?"

"Hm? Who do you mean, Touma-oniichan?"

Touma turns to Enshuu with all the energy he could possibly muster.

"Stop playing with me. Kumagawa's plan for me in this place has ended here so I know that he had meant for you to send me off to him."

"Hmmm. Well, Kumagawa-oniichan isn't someone that's capable of planning that far ahead but if you really must know, he's finishing what Tsuchimikado Motoharu started."

* * *

In front of a high-rise building, Kumagawa Misogi finishes off a large disposable cup as he dashes it against the street. The worst Minus grins as he struts up to the entrance.

[I'll have this mess wrapped up before my Cantonese picture drama comes on at 10.]

* * *

 **This overdue update has been brought to you by copious amounts of Captain and Coke! Remember, if you ever have issues over thinking up interesting stuff for a story just drown for a bit in mankind's best friend, alchohol! A bit drunk at the moment so if the latter half of this chapter is screwy, that's why. I just wanted to deviate a bit from the formula the source material follows but I couldn't think of anything for awhile. Made this one a Touma centric chapter because 1, I had troubles with writing him as anything more than a tsukkomi, 2, this story is supposed to be more along the lines of Kumagawa and Touma do Academy City than for it to be so absolutely focused on Kumagawa, and 3, I wanted to give Touma more screentime for the sake of him being just as much a favorite character of mine as Kumagawa. Speaking of 3s, if you are as tardy to the party as this announcement, season 3 for A Certain Magical Index has been announced! I nearly cried when I heard about it. I just hope the first episode, since it'll inevitably be a recap, will at least start out with Tsuchi throwing Touma out the plane before a record scratch sounds off a typical cliché as it moves onto the recap. I'll accept nothing less. But moving on, this arc will continue for about 2 more chapters at the most before I move onto the next one. Expect a lot of buddy cop chapters. That is if Beverly Hills Cops had vampires roaming around a sci-fi Beverly Hills with a meta-joker, reality rending girl laughing at everyone behind the scenes. I won't be diving into the Magic God Othinus arc right away though. There are some things that need setting up before that since I plan for the MGO arc to be the longest one that I do. It may not be so in terms of chapters but the length of those chapters will be seriously long as hell with all the stuff I have for it. MGO was my favorite of the NT arc's so far. Hopefully you like what I have planned but regardless, I'll just have fun with it since that's the whole point of me writing. Let me know if you think I got Touma's characterization wrong. I won't go back and change him this chapter for reasons but I'll definitely use your input moving forward. Even if I don't say it often enough, thank you all for reading my story. I may do it for fun but the fact that people enjoy it helps me a lot in giving me motivation for updating this. So thanks for keeping up with my story and hopefully my next chapter doesn't take nearly as long to write!**


	17. Chapter 17

The End To Revenge  
Negative_Influences

* * *

Across the street from Kumagawa was the high-rise building where Tsugutoshi Kaizumi, a member of the board of directors for Academy City as well as the target for Tsuchimikado's revenge, had hid himself. This was where Kumagawa's plans had led him to. He had baited Tsuchimikado and Touma with the kidnapping of Maika so that he could reach this place without any interruptions. Settling things with Kaizumi was the other bird meant for the stone he had thrown when he had enacted his plan.

Kumagawa bends down to pick up the cup he had so violently thrown across the street before putting it in a nearby trash can.

[I know I did it for dramatic effect but as the mild-mannered citizen I am, I can't just leave this litter where it's at. Could just use All Fiction but it's the principal of the matter, you know? I gotta say though, Enshuu-chan needs to work on the taste. It's like ass. Not the good kind either. ...Man, I didn't realize how lonesome it is to be talking to myself. I always do it but I've been around so many people lately that I just haven't done it in a while. Feels weird.]

It's not often that Kumagawa feels out of sorts with himself. Granted there is still a considerable amount of self-loathing and cynicism that he usually feels but it would make anyone feel odd to play both roles of your standard Japanese comedy act. It's just not as fun.

He remains restlessly silent for a time before he suddenly shouts out at himself.

[Hey asshole! Stop rambling and get your feet moving! We got anime to watch dammit!]

Kumagawa does an about face with all the crisp movements of a seasoned military man before standing at attention and giving a salute to the Lieutenant Kumagawa in his imagination.

[Yes, sir! Operation Kick Ass is a go!]

He performs another about face and marches into the building. It was dark in that empty lobby. The space was wide and exuded an air of extravagance and high class tastes. Tropical plants and waterfalls decorating countless waterways ran through the space around a semicircular reception counter ahead of the entrance. On either side of the counter were security gates and conveyor belts meant for vetting visitors that come by.

But there was no one around. No receptionist to glance up from her phone. No guards to tower over and mean mug anyone suspicious. No workers bustling about the place. Not a soul.

Then the echoing of footfalls shatters that desolate atmosphere. At the other end of the room was a set of stairs leading up to the second floor that looked more like a stage prop than a proper set of stairs for all it's ceremonial air. Kumagawa looks up at the black-haired, sailor uniform wearing girl who stands at the top holding the right side's railing as she looks down on him both literally and figuratively.

"I admit, this is unexpected. I had thought that it would be Tsuchimikado Motoharu I'd see but it's just as well that you've come here, Kumagawa Misogi."

[Sorry to betray your expectations but Tsuchi-san is a bit tied up at the mo. His role in this shall be replaced by his stand-in! Kuuuuuuumagawa Misooooogiiiiiiii!]

Kumagawa takes a running start as he jumps over the reception counter, landing on the other side.

[Wait, wait, wait. Hold up for a second, Seria-chan. I know this is the part where we both sneer at each other with smug monologuing but can we please just step back from that for a moment and appreciate the fact that I actually nailed that landing? Seriously, I need you to acknowledge this or I won't be able to accept that it actually happened.]

"Haha! Well, you are certainly more entertaining as an opponent than Tsuchimikado."

[I'm not fucking around woman. Acknowledge the miracle that has just occurred here or so help me, with Zordon as my witness, I will molest you with every fiber of my being.]

She sighs with a small smile as she walks slowly down the steps.

"Yes, yes. Jumping over that counter was impressive. I was honestly surprised that your feet hadn't gotten caught onto the edge or something, let alone being able to clear the distance between either end of the desk."

[Right? I might have screwed myself by using up what little luck I have for that but I have no regrets. Even if you were to kill me now, I could die satisfied that I managed to make that jump.]

"Is that so? That would certainly make it convenient for me."

[No can do on that end, I'm afraid. But...I'll go ahead and make a small break from my usual character settings in light of that sweet jump. Will you surrender here? I can make a mess out of a normal girl like you but I'm willing to-]

"You can quit with that. I told you just a bit ago that even if you weren't Tsuchimikado, it was just as well. Meaning that even if an aberrant to the Curriculum like you has shown himself, it changes little of my actual planning. You should have realized as much when I used your full name."

By now, Seria has reached the first floor. Kumagawa narrows his eye's at her words, dropping his frivolousness for a moment.

"...You've made contact with Anshin'in-san then, I take it?"

Seria raises an eyebrow as she chuckles at him with a hand on her hip.

"Who the hell is that? If it's someone that can make you get all serious like that, then I kind of wish I had known about whoever that is. All I did was utilize the data collected from all the little misadventures you've had in the city. From there it is rather easy to make a proper plan to counter your insane abilities. Nothing more or less than that."

Kumagawa frowns as he thinks on the implications but eventually his smile returns.

[Guess that's alright then. That might have complicated things a bit more but at least I have no need to waste my time with you! If you really don't want to give up then I'll just have to screw all the way down to the marrow to get at that ego of yours!]

"Are you sure you really want to do that?"

[Hm? Well, yeah? Or are you twisting what I just said into a sexual innuendo? Because I can totally switch gears for that if need be. It wouldn't be a problem for me at all.]

Seria runs her other hand through her hair as her smile grows savagely arrogant.

"Sorry to disappoint but no. What I refer to is whether you should just recklessly attack me as you usually do."

Kumagawa's confusion only fuels Seria's amusement.

"You and Tsuchimikado may be different in terms of technique and skill sets but how you two operate are fundamentally the same. You manipulate people's perceptions, do anything for the sake of your goals, and act in ways no one else would expect. Once you take all your qualities into account, a counter is achievable. The video you had put out of Tsuchimikado's sister, for example, helped a lot in the preparations for defeating that double-sided assassin. Once I had seen the backdrop, I knew the location and had a bomb set there."

She pulls down the collar of her shirt slightly to show some kind of metal lump protruding from the center of her chest.

"This is a special device that is directly linked to the activation of the bomb. Should my heart rate go above or below the established norm, Tsuchimikado Maika and anyone else in that building will die. I had wanted to see that guy's expression when I told him as much but I suppose it's fine to be happy with the knowledge that I can use both of the siblings for this."

[So? I can just use All Fiction-]

"Now I'm just hurt. Did you really think that was all that I would do? You aren't as simple an opponent as you make yourself out to be."

With her arms outstretched to either side of her, Seria bares her teeth in triumph.

"This lobby is being pumped full of a specially concocted airborne virus that was created with the DNA of the Tsuchimikados as it's foundation. I had it made to counteract the Wild Card Coccus in the odd possibility that assassin had the balls to bring it into this fight so it isn't harmful to our health but it's a perfect weapon to use against someone who fakes their sadistic actions like you. That power of yours can somehow spit in the face of causality by making whatever you wish into nothing but not even you can predict just how far that power can extend in certain circumstances, correct? Like your fight with the number 2, should you start throwing those screws imbued with that power, you might just risk making those two into nothing as you do so. Sure, you may not be targeting them specifically when you do attack but can you say for sure whether or not it is enough for that power to simply touch the virus riddled air for it to erase them?"

[This isn't like how it was with Dark Matter. DNA is DNA. It's not equivalent to the people they belong to.]

"But can you really say for sure that is the case? It may be a bit of a stretch but that power of yours is already pretty ridiculous. Do you really have the proper knowledge of how this virus works to know that it won't have your power extend onto the ones used as it's base?"

[…]

One arm goes across her chest to hold up the other arm's elbow as she places a hand on the side of her face.

"Just like Tsuchimikado, you don't have the balls to act so irresponsibly in your actions at this point when you don't have enough information to make a proper decision. You could use Non Fiction to bring them back, after you've erased them. But you can't do that either huh? Not when you have already so callously manipulated the two of them as you have. They may never even realize that they had stopped existing for but a moment however you'd know, wouldn't you? Can you really accept the guilt of rejecting the existences of those you had made suffer all for your own designs for even one second?

By now her smile had all the mental pressure of an approaching tiger, hungry for the prey before her.

"Once you really take it all into perspective, can you do anything at all?"

This was an attack that had gone beyond what anyone else had been capable of so far in Kumagawa's experiences here. With only the information she had received of his short time in Academy city, Seria had created an overwhelmingly powerful offensive. It was to the point where it would not be surprising for any normal person faced with such intimidation to completely collapse under the weight of her will. That was the type of person she was.

Kumokawa Seria had no tangible powers to speak of, despite being put through the Curriculum like every other student in the city. Instead, she had sharpened and honed her ability to manipulate the hearts and minds of others to the point where even Shokuhou Misaki, the most powerful mental power based esper, thought her ability to be on par with her own. This was the true power of the one that had acted as the brains of Kaizumi Tsugutoshi and allow him to stay several steps ahead of several of his fellow board members.

But there was still a few key pieces of information that she was missing to be able to totally oppose that otherworldly Minus. This isn't something she can be faulted for. No one else to this point in Academy City has used such methods on him after all.

The first, and perhaps the most crucial, is that forcing a Minus into a corner is the absolute worst thing you can do.

[Heeeeh. That's an impressive job you've done in sealing off my actions.]

"What? Stalling for time now?"

[Nah. Really I should thank you for being so thorough on your planning.]

Seria frowns.

[If you had allowed me even one avenue of action here, I might have had more of a chance to win here. That wouldn't be good at all. If my odds of success are too high, I'll just mess it all up at the most critical moment and lose before I could do anything of worth.]

A screw appears within Kumagawa's clenched hand as he points it at Seria.

[Now that it's like this, I can truly act as I wish to. After all, the best of foolproof plans can always be ruined with the ingenuity of a true fool. I mean, there's no way you could have actually prepared for every contingency. Like what if I were to spontaneously combust? Wouldn't that be weird?]

Multiple screws appear in the air, all aimed for Seria. Her only response is a raised eyebrow as they rain down at her.

"Really now?"

She casually walks through that hurricane of death without a worry. Her body merely twists and turns around the falling objects like she was in the middle of an impromptu dance.

"I've already mentioned that you can't even touch me without the worry of harming those two. What makes you think I'd balk at this feint of yours?"

As she moves toward him, Kumagawa closes the distance in an instant with the screw he wields swinging for her temple. Her eyes aren't focused on his left handed attack, however, as she glances at the right hand coming for her chest.

"Hahahaha! You think I can't see through this one either!?"

From her sleeve, a small gun slides into the palm of her hand. It only had two shots and, despite her skill shown thus far, she was no marksman. But even an amateur had no fear of missing at this distance. The pistol's business end slams into his gut as she fires both rounds in succession.

It was at this moment where another missing piece of information comes to bite at Seria.

It was at this moment that Kumagawa Misogi exploded into a gory splatter of limbs and organs.

Her pistol had no such ammunition loaded. At the most, he'd be missing his stomach in that case. It couldn't be possible for the explosion to cause her to fly all the way across the floor back to the stairs she had descended from. But regardless that's where she finds herself now, struggling with a fading consciousness as she tries to prop herself upright.

Through the smokey crater his death had left, all she sees is what's left of Kumagawa Misogi all over the lobby. She wearily turns her head to the side as she looks over a detached arm that had made it to her side.

"What...what the hell was that?"

She couldn't wrap her head around the insanity of what happened even with her sizable intellect at her disposal. Before she could make any progress on clearing her confusion, screws pin her into the floor by her clothes.

[Whew. That really is one hell of an aftertaste to that drink. Thanks Enshuu-chan-sensei!]

Looming over her was a completely put together Kumagawa, smiling with not a care in the world.

"How?"

[Well, I'd say it wasn't for you to know but since you had flaunted your knowledge advantage over me, I have to say that it's all your fault for being so blinded by my greatness that you couldn't see the forest for the trees!]

Seria could only groggily wrinkle her brow at that. Just what could she have overlooked? Then it hits her.

"Kihara...Enshuu?"

[Yep, yep, yep! She made a special drink while she was intoxicated on a different kind of drink. It was made to cause the one who imbibed it to explode once their blood is exposed to air. I didn't think that you wouldn't have some sort of method for stopping myself or Tsuchi-san in the event we got close enough to you. It would be just like a sneaky bitch like you to have such a tiny gun up their sleeve. I'm a little insulted that you thought you could take me on with something like that but hey, I forgive you! Anyway, that explosion was all it took to release that seal you had put on All Fiction. Since you can't account for suicide bombing, you couldn't have prepared the virus to be heat-resistant. Though, the virus _is_ still being distributed into this place so I suppose I can't use All Fiction for the time being. Well, I guess I can just slam my head into a wall until the gray matter comes spewing out and let the virus die with me before making my death into nothing to clear that bad blood!]

The mastermind among masterminds sneers at his gloating.

"Yeah? And what about the bomb this device is linked to? I was able to control my heart through all the other attacks but if you come at a frail girl like me with such an explosive attack, of course I may be liable to unwillingly skip a beat or two."

Kumagawa slaps his hands against his face in surprise.

[Ooooooh Nooooooo! What have I done!? They're dead! I killed them! Waaaaaaaaah! I mean...you technically killed them since you set it all up to begin with but still. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!]

Great globs of tears pour from his face like a river onto Seria's face as she she tries to fruitlessly avoid the seemingly accidental attempt at waterboarding.

"Stop that damn you! You can't be so genuinely unaffected by their deaths so quit the act already!"

The deluge stops as suddenly as it began. Kumagawa's cluelessly gazes down on her with a grin.

[Huh? What do you mean? They didn't die. The Tsuchimikado siblings, Enshuu-chan, my Skill Out buds, and a certain idiot that we are _both_ well acquainted with.]

Seria's eyes narrow before they widen at the implication.

[Ahhhhh. I see now. You still want to continue acting like you're that kind of monster huh? Geeze, if you were any more similar to me, I might fall for you! Or off you for my own peace of mind. But I digress. Do you really think I would be as dense as a certain someone we know and love to tease? You aren't the only who has done their homework, Seria-chan.]

Kumagawa squats down to get closer to Seria as his voice lowers in both volume and the pace.

[Since you know so much about me, you should already know that I'm involved only because of that, currently, deflated pin-cushion guy being someone Misaki-chan cares for. Otherwise, I couldn't possibly have given two ounces of rat shit about his little problems. Since I know a lot more about you than you do me, I already know the sort of relationship you two have. If you knew where both of the Tsuchimikados would be, then there's no way you wouldn't have accounted for his being there too. You couldn't possibly kill him. Maybe Tsuchi-san, hell maybe even Maika-chan, but definitely not Touma-kun. He's too important to you. You aren't even capable of letting him be witness to their deaths. How could you possibly have the balls to expose him to that level of danger?]

He leans down with his hand putting his body weight onto the fake device on her chest, causing Seria to grimace with pain.

[Once you've put that all into perspective, were you really able to do anything at all?]

Kumagawa stops putting pressure on Seria's chest and swipes her phone from a pocket in her skirt.

[It's a shame that you've sealed All Fiction for this room. I might have been able to take away your pain and injuries otherwise. It's just as well. You might try to stab me in the back when I least expect it. Don't get me wrong though, I actually like that quality about you! So I'll do you this freebie and call you an ambulance.]

He makes an anonymous call to a hospital that Enshuu had told him about before he searches through the call logs.

"Do...you really think that you can get past all the traps I had set in place?"

[Do you really think I give a shit, Ambulance-chan? Once I leave the lobby, I'll kill myself to rid my body of the virus so it'll just be down to a brute force method of reloading saves as I die all the way up to the boss of this level.]

He turns her phone to her face as he points out a number.

[This one is him right? Your boss? Not like you'll tell me but whatever.]

Kumagawa stands up as he puts the phone up to his ear. An old and weary voice speaks from the other end.

"...Is it done?"

[Nope. But I'll finish it.]

He ends the call and carelessly drops the phone near Seria as he climbs the stairs.

* * *

After a while, the screws disappear and cease to keep Seria imprisoned. She knew she needed to stop Kumagawa but warning Kaizumi would be meaningless. There were several anti-Kumagawa countermeasures around up in the office he might be able to use. But it could have only worked if it was Seria that used them or, at the very least, anyone with a proficient level of fitness could have done so. Kaizumi was only an old man without any combat skill to speak of. If Kumagawa reached his office, it would be over for him.

The only stroke of luck she had was the fact that Kumagawa had deliberately chosen the most difficult path available to him. His method of throwing himself through all the traps she laid out would be a long and arduous one. Even if she decided on getting help from someone on the other side of the city, they would have plenty of time to get here.

She needed someone who could fight that monster on equal footing.

She needed someone she could trust.

And most of all, she needed someone who would come running with only minimal information to go off of.

She had her answer. But Kumagawa had been right when he said she couldn't in good conscious involve him in this. There was no other choice, however.

She was battling against her body shutting her down for repairs however. Her fingers shook as she tried to operate the keys. She then attached a file that would automatically release her trap and allow the signal to be classified as a cell phone signal. Finally, she weakly pressed the send button.

With her finger still on the button, a thought occurs.

"...Wait..."

Could she say that the ones they had been fighting hadn't foreseen this?

"...No."

Could she really believe that she hadn't been set up to call him into play on their game board?

Before she can do anything more about this, she passes out.

* * *

Tsugutoshi Kaizumi had just finished the entire bottle of Irish whiskey that he had started on about 45 minutes ago. Despite the already hefty amount of alcohol in his system, he looks around the shelf where he keeps the drinks meant originally for just guests to get another bottle in him before time ran out.

Kaizumi is by no means an alcoholic. He was the sort who lived a life of luxury and excess, so it wasn't a choice he made out of any sort of moral logic. It was merely that he wished to live his life to the fullest of his ability and he believed that things like tobacco, alcohol, and other such substances could only dull the experiences he strived for. Though, as evident by the shelf, he had no qualms about letting others partake. He was simply the sort to only drink in the worst of times.

And with the appearance of the worst possible opponent, even the most pious of men who fight against the legality of alcohol would become the worst possible drunkards.

He had expected Tsuchimikado Motoharu. He expected that if he got past Seria, he would have one glass to still the nerves before his death.

Kumagawa was an unexpected variable, however. With what little information the Chairman had passed down to him a few hours prior, he could tell that things would not be alright at all for him. He shakily pours a glass of brandy, droplets of the stuff occasionally shaking this way and that.

Then he hears, to his left, the door on the other side of the room open. His hands steady themselves as he finished pouring and steeling himself for what's to come.

"So. You've come. I did not expect you to get involved here."

Kumagawa walks in and sits right on top of a coffee table as Kaizumi goes to get his office chair.

[Been getting that a lot. Maybe I should start charging. But yeah, the Siscon is involved in some other stuff right about now. Or maybe not anymore.]

Kaizumi lets out a deep sigh as he pulls the chair out in front of where his enemy sits.

"Perhaps it's fate that the one to come here now should be someone so ignorant of the situation."

Kumagawa's smile turns upside down in a look of irritation.

[Don't flatter yourself. It's not just this but everything that I remain ignorant of. Being a willful fool means having a clean conscious when it comes to ending things.]

"So you don't care at all about the Agitate Halation Project?"

The mouth of the fool does another 180.

[Does it involve cute girls?]

Kaizumi takes a sip of his glass at the question before answering.

"...Never mind. You'd just make things far worse there. I doubt even _they_ know how much of a mess of things someone like you could make of their plans."

His response is giving the old man the most benevolent smile he could offer.

[It's what I do worst! But anyway, it's time to torture you to death.]

Kaizumi was in the middle of taking another sip when the room's temperature had dropped by 30 degrees with those words and began to sputter on what liquid had been caught in his throat. Though this was not out of fear or surprise, as one might expect, but rather due to the laugh he eventually let out over his coughing fit. The fact that his sense of fear was dulled on top of the others was a small part of why he had drank as much as he had.

"Why do that? You have no relation to Motoharu's farce of a revenge. There's no way you could be so ignorant that-"

[That he just set fire to his own apartment and faked Maika-chan's death to allow him to go all out in killing the ones that targeted her? Yeah, I know. That's a part of the reason for getting him and his sister to air out all his dirty laundry. I'm sure he knows as much by now.]

An eyebrow raises on the old man's face as Kumagawa jumps up and walks over to the alcohol shelf, picking up a bottle and taking a swig of what was left before twisting his head the other way to wince at the taste without Kaizumi knowing. As anyone could imagine, he failed in that endeavor.

"What stake do you have in accomplishing that revenge in his stead, then?"

Kumagawa holds his left hand out to Kaizumi with the index finger up. The position stays until he feels his face is no longer frozen shut in the look it had before turning to face him again with an unintentionally, teary smile.

[None. It's not really any of my business, I suppose. But I did promise to save the guy. Part 1 of that, as I mentioned, should be finished up by now but that dude might still be pissed enough to want to mess you up like he wanted to do. So I'll just beat him to the punch! I'm sure if he hears that you have been tortured past the point he would have gone to, then he'll just call it quits.]

"That won't make his anger go away. It'll just fester within him until he blows up again."

[Obviously, he'll be mad about it. I would be at least. But that's why I have his sister playing the part of the soothing nurse, if you'll excuse me for borrowing your metaphor.]

Looking at the long and oversized screw in the psychopath's hand, there was nothing more he could say. But it would feel too pathetic to quit now. Kaizumi downs the half-full glass in his hand before speaking what he believes might be his last words.

"Then if his sister will help wash over his need for revenge, why continue? He shouldn't come after me if you've set things up like that."

[I already told you, I have no reason. Well, maybe that's not right. Even I have some reservations about seeing and having cute girls get hurt. I'll just use that shitty excuse to let out all my other unrelated frustrations out as I kill you over and over again. This ignorant fellow is going to give you the slowest death possible for the flimsiest of reasons.]

The elevator dings from behind him as it goes up to their floor, catching the two off-guard as they look over. Kaizumi's eyes widen in but a second at a realization.

"It all makes sense now. They weren't just thinking of having you or Motoharu take me out here. Hell, I wasn't even the target!"

Screws bore through his weak arms to trap him in his chair, eliciting a horrified scream.

[Yeah of course. I get it. ...But explain anyway so I know you get it too.]

The pain of it forced sobriety onto the old man but regardless, Kaizumi grits his teeth as he speaks through the toothy grin he bares at Kumagawa.

"You aren't just some random passerby anymore. Congratulations, Kumagawa. You, and whomever is coming here, have become players in that person's game. The two of you will be taking yourselves out by your own efforts here and now!"

[Doubt it. Think I know who it is anyway and it's simply in our cards to be so unfortunate as to be pitted against each other in someone else's plot. But we still have a common goal so we'll see eye to eye. Oh. That is unless he wants an eye for an eye. He's probably mad about, well, everything I've done today. Meh. We'll just settle it fists then. Guess that's cool.]

The elevator dings once more as it's occupant reached their floor. Metal doors swing open as Kamijou Touma slowly enters the room with clenched fists and a weary, yet angry, look on him.

He glances at the melancholic Kumagawa before seeing Kaizumi, the old man's arms still bleeding freely onto the floor as he struggles for his consciousness to stay with him. Touma's eyes linger there and slowly move onto the Minus before him as he walks toward him.

"...Do you even feel the slightest bit sorry for what you've done?"

Kumagawa shrugs indifferently.

[Huh. That's strange...I don't even feel the slightest bit like apologizing.]

Touma stops just a foot or two away as he sighs out of pure exhaustion.

"Somehow that's even worse than what I expected from you."

[How is any of it been out of character for me?]

Touma's hair obscures his eye as he looks down for a moment.

"Heh. Fair enough. Hey, can I ask you something?"

[Shoot.]

The semi-delinquent's head shoots back up to look Kumagawa in the eyes with a cruel smile.

"Sphinctersayswhat?"

[Wait, wha-]

Touma slams his fist into Kumagawa hard enough to send him into the bookshelf, his back breaking the wood on impact.

[Ooow. Fuck.]

Satisfied with having let all his pent-up anger out on him, Touma walks away from Kumagawa and over to Kaizumi. He speaks to the one laying on the ground behind him without looking over.

"Kumagawa."

The one being called on gives Touma an ugly, hateful expression as he answers.

[What, cunt?]

"Use All Fiction on this guy's consciousness to wake him up, please."

Kumagawa's face goes from pissed to smug, expecting his next words to get back at that boy for the sucker punch.

[Oho? You don't want me to make his injuries into nothing first? How cruel of you.]

The response, however, smacks the sneer or any kind of expression from the face of that Minus.

" _His health isn't a concern right now_. I only need him responsive to my questions. Feel free to pressure him however you like should he do anything other than give us what we need."

[…Alrighty then. Let's mess him up.]

He stands back up and moves to Touma's side, placing his hand onto Kaizumi's head. The old man wakens with a start.

"Bwuh! Huh? What's-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Kaizumi screams from the pain of the screw in his left arm being twisted about in Kumagawa's hand.

[Ooooiiii. Stop asking stupid questions, my man. I've just been given clearance to continue with my plans for you if you do or say anything we don't give a shit about. You should realize that I really don't care about anything you have to offer but this guy does. He's the only one that stands between me and your endless death. So consider your next words carefully.]

"W-wait a minute damnit! You, boy! You're Kamijou Touma, right? Why are you trying to act so cold about this? You aren't-"

"Shut him up for a second."

Kumagawa twists the screw, causing the man to writhe in agony once more as Touma grabs a chair and despondently drops himself into it. He looks at the old man's face before gesturing for Kumagawa to stop.

"Here's the thing, Kaizumi-san. I don't really care about the fact that it was Tsuchimikado who faked his sister's death and involved himself into this of his own accord or whether or not you are really the one responsible. What matters is that you people forced him to act as he had. If you hadn't had your collective heads stuck up your collective asses, then maybe you could have seen that and prevented any of us from meddling with things to this extent. Yes, it was Tsuchimikado's fault for doing what he did to railroad himself to revenge. Yes, it was Kumagawa's fault for manipulating Tsuchimikado and his sister into hurting each other on every level possible. But it was you. You bastards who sit on high with your plans that totally overlook those down below that forced them to act. It was your actions that forced Tsuchimikado, Kumagawa, and even Seria to do the horrible things they had done. You might have been someone good. This could all be some poor misunderstanding between Tsuchimikado and yourself. In all likelihood, you may be someone that I could say is on our side of this. But like I've said, I don't care anymore about it. Your reasoning. Your purpose. _You_. All of it. I don't care. I'm done caring about those things for right now."

Touma leans forward as he glares deep into Kaizumi's eyes.

"Now tell me why Tsuchimikado was involved here, who's behind it, and where I can find them."

Kaizumi had been shocked at the boy he had heard about being transformed into someone, no, something totally different. The novelty wears off as he returns Touma's glare.

"Or what? Will you kill me? Will you kill the one I give up, even if it's someone unrelated to this? Just how many-"

" _I_ will kill no one. I can't say that I'm actually capable of that despite how I act at this moment. I'm not quite that far gone. But that one there, why, he can murder whoever he wants as many times as he wants. As long as he promises me that your death or injuries won't be permanent and that he'll make them nothing as soon he gets the answers to those questions, then I'll just head back to the lobby and wait until he's done here. No matter how callous I act right now, there's no way I could stomach watching the sort of things Kumagawa would do get information."

Kumagawa looks over at Touma with annoyance.

[Oi. Not only are you putting pressure on me with your high expectations but you seem to be getting the wrong idea by ordering me around. You ought to know how I'd feel about something like that.]

"Do you not want to torture him? Isn't that what you came for?"

[Well. Yeah. But I ain't some minion for you to be bossing around!]

Touma's grin becomes almost a mirror of how Kumagawa's usually is.

"Come on now. This is classic good cop, bad cop."

[No! It sure as shit isn't that at all! It's more like bad cop, even worse cop! Wait...HOW THE FUCK DO YOU GOT ME BEING THE ONE TO CALL OUT THE STUPID SHIT!? THAT'S YOUR DAMN JOB! STOP GOING OUTSIDE YOUR PARAMETERS!]

Touma impishly shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head at him.

"Do you really want me to do this then? Because you know it'll be pathetic as hell."

[WELL OF FUCKING COURSE IT WOULD! YOU'RE A GODDAMN AMATEUR TO THIS SIDE OF THE MORAL COMPASS!]

The boy nods in agreement.

"Right? Why do it at all if it's not done correctly?"

Kumagawa fumes for a good minute before he starts bobbing his head as he amps himself up.

[...Yeah. YEAH! YEAH, FUCK IT! WATCH THE MASTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!]

Just before he could put screw he holds through Kaizumi's chest, the old man ceases being a mere observer to this act and spills everything he knows about the Agitate Halation project.

* * *

Several ambulances had arrived half an hour ago as they cart the building's only two occupants away. From a good distance, Kumagawa and Touma watch as they wait for Misaki and Enshuu to track down Yakumi Hisako, the one behind all of today's events. They had sat in a spot by the roof's edge without saying a word to one another. Kumagawa decides to break the silence.

[Sooooo, that was completely different.]

"...Yeah."

[Do uh you wanna talk about all... _that_?]

"Not really. ...Honestly I'm sick to my stomach when I think about it. I can't fault you for how you act because that's your way and, as much as I hate to admit, it works. But I'm not strong enough for that."

Touma glances over at his partner in crime as he gives him a tired smile.

"Or would you say that I'm not weak enough?"

[…]

Kumagawa can't think of a thing to say but Touma does have other things on his mind so he moves past the awkward silence between them.

"Why did you send me over to that arcade to begin with?

[...Shouldn't that be obvious at this point?]

"I doubt that keeping me busy was all there was to it. If that was the case, then there was no reason to put me through all that. Instead of having me get angry all on my own over the brutality of your plan, you could have just dropped me off someplace with some lie about it being easy if we split up."

[And risk you meddling with things anyway? Besides, you really do have a knack for exposing one's mental weaknesses. If your friend went too far before realizing who his sister was, then it would have all been for nothing. With you there, I could have some insurance on both grounds in terms of things going well over there as well as here.]

Touma shakes his head at the logic presented.

"I don't buy it. By kidnapping his sister, you had already sealed off Tsuchimikado's usual methods. Without his preparations, he can't really do that much to anyone when he knows his sister is in danger. As to you killing Kaizumi, I don't think you would have done that either. Maybe you really would have tortured him, but even when you have a cheat like All Fiction, you aren't the sort for killing people without an actual reason. His death was what Tsuchimikado wanted and since you have taken that away from him already, it'd be a wasted effort for you. That's not to say that you don't do things like that on a whim but there's still more for you do before this is finished right? You clearly had it set that I'd interrupt before you got too far. That was just an act so you could find out why Maika was targeted to begin with because you thought my normally good nature would appeal to Kaizumi. Even though I was by no means my usual self up there, it all worked out in the end. But even with all that in mind, there's still some other factor. There's still more to the over-the-top performance you played out here."

Kumagawa dismissively waves his words off. He chuckles to himself as he shakes his own head before responding.

[Please! Do you actually believe I'm smart enough for something on that scale? I'm flattered but you should fix that paranoia of yours or you might start hurting my feelings.]

Touma speaks nothing in return to this. He was asking Kumagawa to say whatever the reason was because he hadn't a clue about it. It is true that Kumagawa was more the sort to act on a whim or in the moment than plan ahead for anything. For the most part, if you were observant enough, you could see where his plans lead through bits and pieces that Kumagawa tends to foreshadow every now and again. It's like his desire for a fair fight shines through his cheats and lies but nothing comes to mind for Touma. There's nothing...no, something does comes to mind.

"...You were testing me, weren't you?"

[...]

"You mentioned that you approached Aogami to gather information on me. But he either couldn't or didn't want to. That's why you had Enshuu there. She could analyze everything I did there and relay it to you later. Did you...did you really-"

[Set all of this up for the sole purpose of analyzing you? Ridiculous. You should ditch the narcissism on top of the paranoia. I just wanted to finish things so I could catch my show on time. That's 90% of my motivation here.]

"There's still 10% being unaccounted for. You did say that you could stab me in the back at any time if you thought that it could bring you closer to saving Ajimu. You might as well fess up at this point."

Kumagawa clicks his tongue out of frustration as he runs his hand down his face.

"...Haaaah. Fine. You are _partially_ correct. I am interested in seeing what makes you tick but that was really only a small part of it. I don't base my actions on what whatever consequences that I can perceive. All of this happened outside of my expectations due to my not having any. I only acted with the general idea of saving your friends and if I happen to get a better idea of how you fight, then that's a bonus. I really do just want to get this night over with. It's all been such a pain in the ass. I really have no idea how you can stand these working conditions. Fuck this more than 2 hour bullshit."

Touma smiles a bit at his complaints.

"Haha. Yeah, it's pretty bullshit alright."

"So what now then? You gonna beat the shit outta me for what I've done or what?"

He shrugs at Kumagawa's questions.

"If manipulating my friends into hurting each other was at least 90% you wanting to resolve the situation then I can just be satisfied with that punch I gave you a bit ago. There's no point in being upset now."

"...It's not my place to say but you really are odd."

Touma glances over and sees the strangest look on Kumagawa's face. He couldn't figure out what it was that made it strange but then an epiphany alights. He couldn't know for sure since he never had seen what he looked like when it happened but he was positive that expression was the same one Touma wore each time his assessment of Kumagawa had changed. It was...curiously refreshing to be on the other side for once, he thought.

"What? You rather we duke it out?"

"No, of course not. Well, I do want a round 2 eventually but that would be a waste of time as things are now."

"Then?"

Kumagawa lets his thoughts brew and formulates his words as he carefully lays out his beliefs on Touma's character or what he had thought of it previously to around half an hour ago.

"You're just...not what I was expecting of you. From what I had heard, I thought you to be some stereotypical MC hero. Some dense bastard that throws himself into crises because of justice or something. But now I see that you aren't like that at all. You shove your ideals down other people's throats regardless of whether it's actually right or whether the ones you side with are actually right because that's just what you _personally_ hold to be right. You may have heroic qualities and do things befitting of that but your reasons are completely hypocritical of your actions. You'd even let a guy like me help you and accept my methods as long as it saves the ones you care for. Even if that means it wears down on you mentally. I just don't get it."

"...Someone I know had fought with me because of something similar. He kept calling me a hero and saying that I wasn't acting accordingly but I'm no hero at all. Your assessment of me isn't wrong. I really do butt into other people's problems just because something about it bothers me. I guess I'm like you in the aspect that I fight because I can't stand people being unfortunate."

Kumagawa stares at Touma for a bit before looking back to the ambulances below as they wrap things up.

[How much further are you willing to go with this?]

"...I'd rather dial it back to normal for the rest of this honestly. I don't know about you but that act I put up with Kaizumi had worn me down plenty enough. Let's just end this quickly without those sorts of moral shortcuts. At this point, I'll be satisfied if everyone involved from here on out can go home happily.""

[And you actually believe that can happen?]

"Yeah. I have to."

Their phones buzz in their pockets and after they had checked the messages they had been sent, Touma and Kumagawa give each other a slight nod before leaving for the next fight.

* * *

 **Happy Halloween! Got the week off so hopefully I can wrap up this story arc later this week for you guys. I was going to go back and give all the chapters proper Index styled titles but this site apparently has a character limit there. I'll get around to putting them into the chapters themselves but that'll take me a bit and I'm way too lazy right now. Maybe tomorrow. Shit got a bit dark here huh? Touma has always been a broken character, mentally speaking. Sure, he'll do the sort of things that appear all heroic but he could give a damn about that. He helps Stiyl, an executioner, Tsuchimikado, a spy/assassin, Accelerator, who has killed thousands, Othinus, who destroyed the UNIVERSE AT LEAST A BILLION TIMES OVER, and even in the most recent volume for NT, he protects Aleister who has been the one behind fucking everything wrong in not just Academy City but has also fucked up Touma's life since birth. You could argue that most MCs would just forgive them because their lives have meaning but for Touma he just saves people because they need saving. He does what feels right to him as opposed to what is actually right. Oh and if you happen to question his ruthlessness in this chapter then I recommend reading the Virtual-On crossover novel or reread OT 2. That aspect of him has always been there but I would think the combination of the days events and being influenced by Kumagawa would bring that out of him temporarily. Though, as with the Virtual-On novel, Touma would of course heavily regret his actions. Well, I also need him to have that slight personality change in preparation for the next story arc. The next chapter should be the last one of Agitate Halation before that all gets down on paper, er, computer screen. One thing to keep in mind from here on is that Touma is working along side Kumagawa. There's no way that, with their misfortune combined, things won't get completely messed up and start resulting in at least a few bad ends. In other words, the story is going to veer off the road in terms of how the story follows the events of NT.  
**


	18. Chapter 18

Agitate Halation and Revolution A/O

Those_Behind_The_Curtain_Move_Their_Pieces

* * *

Laughter echoes within the room in a certain hospital. This room was the one place where Yakumi Hisako could feel at ease and plot out her designs surrounding the Agitate Halation project. Her assisstant, Rensa, cocks her head in confusion over Yakumi's overzealous hilarity.

"An error has occurred in the experiment."

"Hahahaha! That's fine! Tsuchimikado couldn't see through his true enemy and sent an unneeded ball over to Kaizumi. Even with the appearance of a random ping pong ball on the billiards table, I have still managed to survive!"

Rensa, or at least the 29th of 40 candidates that pilots the cybernetic body known as such, couldn't quite get her fixation with her billiards metaphors but it wasn't her place to question such oddities so she lets Yakumi go on as she always does.

"Ping pong ball? You mean Kumagawa Misogi?"

Yakumi walks over to the white board and traces her finger over a spot on the chart labled, 'Revolution A/O'.

"But of course. He's an element that can't be predicted or tracked by normal means. Thus, referring to him as a ping pong ball is appropriate for him."

"That's even more reason why I can't understand you involving someone like him in this project intentionally. Besides the fact that he ought to know about his inclusion from Kaizumi's papers."

"Aaaaaah yes. But also no. What Kaizumi-san had on the project was before I had decided to involve Kumagawa-san so he shouldn't know about that much yet. But as far as to what you're talking about with my intent to use him in fine tuning Agitate Halation...hmmm. To put it simply, while he's not one to have his actions predicted, he is still capable of being manipulated."

"How could that be? We may not have any information on it currently but it should surely be evident in the fact that Kumokawa Seria was beaten, that Kumagawa Misogi isn't such a person to be manipulated."

Yakumi turns around to Rensa and smiles crookedly.

"That's because she didn't have all the information necessary to do so."

"You speak of the information provided by that Kihara."

"Yes, yes, yeeees. Which is why I need you to eliminate him."

"But you haven't-"

"Don't you worry about that. Just trust me when I say that you are perfect for destroying his hope for being a hero in all this. Now, is everything else in place?"

"Yes. The leverage point, Fremea Seivelun, is within the accepted parameters according to the reports given by that Kihara. The counterbalance, Kuroyoru Umidori, has been primed for her part in the experiment. Her disposition isn't of the standard but it has been theorized that an opposite can still be affected in a way."

"Good, good. Now carry on as planned Rensa. Go and make the dream for a world without heroes a reality."

With that, Rensa leaves the room and Yakumi turns back to the board.

Revolution A/O. This was the codename assigned to Kumagawa's part in the Agitate Halation project. As soon as he had appeared and made himself known to AC, Yakumi had seen that he could be used differently than Fremea but achieve the same results as she could.

His nature that causes everyone to hate him.

The fact that he can crush any foe's will even if he actually loses.

The fact that he can befriend anyone and make even his enemies into the sort of friends that would give their lives for him.

He could be used to fine tune Agitate Halation. It's standard use causes too many variables. Everyone comes with their own values, motivations, and methods for fighting for someone. Adding Kumagawa into the equation forces the Hero's sights onto him as a target of hate no matter what. Though, of course, as much as she wished her project to be a perfect way to completely eradicate the trait known as heroism, it is impossible a task to accomplish. No matter what, heroes will still rise up from random spots in the populace. Even if they can be controlled to a degree, it's still possible for some to escape the net that Agitate Halation throws out.

That's where Kumagawa's role as a hero repurposing machine comes into play as the project's Revolution A/O. His personality is one that is constantly at odds with itself.

Despicable yet lovable. Cruel yet kind. Evil yet good.

These traits make him the sort that could hit it off well with virtually anyone regardless of their disposition, race, religion, gender, or any other differing variables. With that in mind, he can fine tune Agitate Halation's power over heroes by allowing for the ones in charge to program Kumagawa to truly control the heroes they capture. If they require their will intact, Kumagwa can befriend, corrupt, them. If their will isn't needed, Kumagawa can shatter that. He had the capability to become the birdcage that would keep their protection target and all those that would seek to save her trapped within his influence.

All in all, he can improve efficiency in the project as a whole. By suppressing some aspects of him with a Testament machine to rewrite his mental processes a bit, he can be made to do what they want. That aspect appealed greatly to the ones that were still on the fence about the Agitate Halation project.

But that is only a cover, just as the rest of the Agitate Halation project is.

His true purpose, is to be a hard counter against the heroes and to allow Rensa the opportunity to kill Fremea Seivelun for the purpose of allowing Yakumi to, by utilizing the Shading Computer that used the AIM diffusion fields as a medium, transfer her consciousness into the AIM diffusion fields of the city and become a AIM thought being like the mysterious DRAGON and Kazakiri Hyouka. Though, her goal lay even beyond that by having the system use other fluids like the winds and oceans.

Her true goal was functional immortality.

Granted, Kumagawa isn't the sort to really allow for the weak and defenseless, like Fremea, to die for something like this but at the same time his unique perspective on what is weak allows for some leeway in manipulation. After all, it's going to be Rensa against every hero in the city.

Can Kumagawa really close his eyes to someone whose existence is nearly unanimously opposed by the raving mobs of heroes?

But at the same time, can he really allow for a mere child to be sacrificed for someone else's selfish curiosity?

It's not something that could be easily decided upon. No matter which path he chooses, the guilt of the one he leaves to die will weigh heavily on him for the rest of his life. Such a situation puts the slimiest of grins upon Yakumi's face.

"I was a bit put off by the idea of including him into this just to cover for my weakness of overlooking details buuuut, I have to say, Yuuitsu-san, this is truly a fantastic moment to be a part of. Well, I suppose I should stop now. If I continue to savor this anymore, I may miss out on my own role in this."

* * *

Kumagawa traverses the rooftops by way of pseudo-teleportation as he races for the apartment where the cornerstone of the Agitate Halation project, Fremea Seivelun, lived.

He had split up with Touma after learning of the whereabouts of the mastermind behind the project, Yakumi Hisako, and Fremea. They figured they hadn't the time to spare on converging on one person over the other so they went their separate ways to simultaneously protect and attack.

It would be nice and simple if that was the mutual conclusion reached by the two but things are never nice or simple.

Originally, the roles of offense and defense were to be switched around but Kumagawa had insisted that they played rock, paper, scissors for it. Kumagawa, in standard fashion, cheated when instead of throwing any of the three possible moves to use in the game, he threw screws. About a dozen of them in fact. By the time Touma could stand still long enough to catch his breath from having to dodge the projectiles, Kumagawa had run off for Fremea's apartment, yelling that he needed to recharge his waning energy by teasing little, blonde girls. Touma was concerned but there was no way for him to catch up to that monster of a pervert once he had his mind set on something so he just sighed and went for the other target.

[Now that I think about it, I probably should have let Touma-kun go to save Fremea-chan. He was pretty pissed off at that old guy from before so he might just go overboard and murder that chick. Well, that's his decision to make I guess. Considering I'm already near old enough for wizardhood, I should start acting in true irresponsibility for my actions!]

And with a shrug of it's weary shoulders, the angel on his shoulder gives up it's futile efforts to get it's ward to do the right thing as Kumagawa nears his destination. A desperate scream from close by reaches his ears. The source was the prone body of a battered Kuroyoru Umidori from street level as someone else before her was pierced by countless white stakes coming from the wings sprouting from the back of what looked like a nurse.

[Hellooooo nurse! Sorry Fremea-chan but I gotta make a slight detour for someone like that!]

He jumps from the roof of the 15 story building with the intent to do one of those cool superhero landings often seen in various movies. But in the darkness, he had neglected to see the jutting pole used for drying clothes hanging out over one of the balconies. His body catches on that and sends him spinning down into a parked car below. Both the nurse and Umidori look on at his unmoving body before All Fiction corrects his mistake from the annals of causality.

[Totally meant to do that! ...Come on now, if no one laughs then I'm gonna start to feel pretty embarrassed over here.]

He scratches the back of his head as a frail sounding voice calls from the ground before him.

"Kuma...gawa..."

[Hmm?]

He had been in his usual jovial mood up until this point. But on recognizing the one that had been attacked by the wings of the nurse, all of that playfulness drains from his face. Kumagawa tries to think of something to say but the sight of his friend, Hamazura, being so badly hurt wipes out his thought processes.

"Kumagawa...you need to take her and run from here. Just-"

"I don't need to hear anymore of that shit so stop wasting your energy with it, Zura-chan."

Kumagawa walks over to Hamazura with an eye on the nurse. The nurse in question merely stands there, seemingly content on waiting for him to finish his business with the others. Such an act wasn't something that he appreciated in the slightest. In fact, her emotionless, devil-may-care attitude was getting under his skin more than what she has done already.

"She's too strong...just take Kuroyou and get away from here."

"Haaaah. Hey, Umi-chan."

He turns away from Hamazura and looks over at the cyborg girl. She doesn't reply but with how she stares at him, she is clearly paying attention. Though that may be from shear hate but nonetheless.

"As soon as you're able, take Zura-chan and get out of here. I'll handle this."

A sharp tapping sound draws his attention to the bloodied words written by Umidori's disembodied arm. Cyborg. That was all he saw before he turned away.

"Thanks for the warning but it really doesn't matter how strong she is at this point. I'm just going to wipe her face off onto every inch of pavement on this street."

The nurse approaches Kumagawa with slow, calculated movements.

"Secondary target, Revolution A/O, located. You may have been able to overpower 4 of the Level 5s with those powers that exist outside of the Curriculum but-"

Rensa's words stop short as she throws herself out of the storm of screws that came down above her. Kumagawa takes a few steps forward, putting himself between her and the others behind him.

"Seriously Umi-chan. Take him and go. I'm not going to be able to promise that you both won't get caught up in the carnage otherwise."

He doesn't bother to look but the sounds of pained grunts and something being dragged away from the scene satisfied his worries.

"Now then it's just me and you, nurse-chan. Go ahead and start your long-winded explanation of just what you meant by referring to me as this Revolution A/O so you can boost my motivation to end Yakumi-chan before Touma-kun can even reach her."

Rensa eyes Kumagawa with caution before responding.

"...That name was given as a means of covering up your true purpose in the completion of the project. I wasn't given anything to go off of as to what you are supposed to be used for but the doctor assured me that it would come to me once we met. That much hasn't come to me but I will have it figured out once I've subdued you as part of the original plan."

Rather than fueling his anger, the explanation only served to confuse him.

"Huh. Your boss...is really lackadaisical about your safety huh."

Rensa tilts her head at his words.

"Considering I'm having to be the target of all the heroes that are brought out by the effects of Agitate Halation, having to deal with one more isn't too much. Why are you so worried about the one who tried to kill your friend?"

Kumagawa's haggard eyes narrow as he scoffs.

"You know, I was wondering that myself."

Screws begin to hang in the air behind him as a giant flower blooms out from Rensa's back. The moment it returns within her, the screws fly out to her. Just before contact, several of them rebound back to where Kumagawa was but he sidesteps them as he grabs onto one and runs with it in his tightened right hand.

"You aren't using All Fiction for those screws. That's slightly unexpected."

Kumagawa's screw was swinging for her head but she paid his attack no mind. Her eyes dart to the corners of her left.

"But creating an illusion just so you could make a sneak attack, that is expected of you."

Her fist lightly knocks into Kumagawa's chest, the redirected force being enough to shatter the majority of his ribcage as he is sent crashing through a building. Another flower blooms. Green orbs float around Rensa before they fire into the building with impunity. Screws fly from the cloud of debris but she simply shoots those down while continuing her assault. Between it all, a dark blur flies out at her.

"Another method of misdirection is within expectations."

All of the orbs converge their high-speed electron beams onto the blur before it can get close. A sudden attack from the corner of her right eye causes her to swing her body back wildly to avoid it, forcing her concentration to falter as a single screw makes it through the green gauntlet as it pierces her right arm, severing it with the shear force. To Rensa's side was a jacket-less, sneering Kumagawa.

"And I suppose that too is within expectations, huh?"

He could her screaming in front of him and see the sparks that flew from the wound but somehow, he could also hear the same voice, at the exact same time, whisper behind him as the woman in front of him disappears with the noise of many things being pulled out of something.

"Yes, perfectly within expectations."

Kumagawa whirls to the source but the flower had already retracted itself into Rensa. Two white wings impale his frail body and hang him up above the street for a moment before tearing his body in two. The two meaty halves of his corpse smack against the buildings before hitting the ground. Rensa stares at the remains as the blood trails off the wings and drips onto the ground but even after nearly three minutes, nothing happened. Her guard remained up nonetheless as she drops the remote she had been using as a vector for Mental Out's power.

"I already know you have some method of escaping any manner of death. I've already used each of the abilities of the Level 5s you have fought with so far, perhaps bringing out the 6th's would suffice in taking you down. Either way, you cannot expect me to ignore such an obvious tra-"

Rensa's body was designed to be as innocuous as possible. She was meant to be a hard counter to Level 5s after all so if there was an obvious, uniform design choice, the 7 Level 5s may all just simply go after the Rensas on sight for their own piece of mind, if nothing else. So her design was made with the possibility of being able to blend into a crowd. This way, those Level 5s could never know where the attacks may come from. As such, they all are designed to look and act as human as possible.

To get to the point, blinking is a part of appearing human and in that split second she took to do so, the body disappeared.

The flower explodes out from her back as she switches gears but she was both too late as well as too instinctive in her actions. In the fraction of a second that it takes for the flower of her inner clockwork to expand out to rewire itself, Kumagawa had driven a screw right in the center of it all before planting his foot against the head of the screw and kicking against it with all he had. Her body flew down the street, the mechanisms of the flower snapping against the asphalt. Kumagawa sighs loudly at the aftermath of the whole affair.

"Goddamnit. You made me sacrifice my jacket. I could bring it back but I'm really just too tired of all this shit to do so at the moment. Maybe later when my mood has improved. Still though, why?"

He walks toward Rensa's twitching body that lay on it's side, as the mechanisms from her back prevented her from laying on her back. The damage he had done to her body's systems was critical and as a result, much of her framework was spazzing out from multiple system failures and various malfunctions. The ones that commanded speech were apparently fine however.

"What do you mean? Why I attacked knowing that you would destroy me no matter what I did?"

"I guess I do want to know that too but you can replicate powers, right? Why didn't you replicate my Skills?"

"Because my system is founded on the power system developed by the Curriculum. The development of this body had no such considerations for powers outside of the system."

Kumagawa sits on a nearby curb facing the side of Rensa that had her face to him.

"Well, it wouldn't have mattered either way. Your lack of talent at using those powers may be able to translate into being able to control Minuses but you still had enough to hold me off for as long as you had so I doubt my Minuses would help you. Well that and I have already prepared for the eventuality of needing to use something besides my own Skills. But I'm rambling. Why would you go this far for some woman that is basically feeding your life into her idiotic curiosity?"

"She saved me before. I don't know if you are familiar with the term but I was a Child Error. Someone that has been abandoned by their parents to the whims of Academy City. Those scientists performed a great number of experiments on my body before the doctor came to me. She offered me a final experiment that would release me from the pain of that lab. I accepted gladly. That's all there is to it."

"...You would even be fine with dying here? Even though she clearly is just using you to be thrown away once she has no use for you?"

Rensa's normally expressionless face breaks into a slight smile.

"I had never expected to be given a happy ending so if my life is indeed used up for the doctor's sake, then I can die happily."

She was genuinely satisfied with that. Rensa had seen Yakumi as being such a savior to her that even if she know full well that she was nothing more than a resource to her and that more than just Rensa would die in the pursuit of Yakumi's wishes, she would be pleased to just have been of use to her. Such a desire was pure and simple enough for most to understand immediately, even if it was disagreeable.

But for Kumagawa, that just made him hate her all the more. He hated people that would just resign themselves to their fate because of someone else's will. It'd be the same even if Yakumi's goal was a noble one. No matter the reason if her life isn't being sacrificed for her own sake, then it's nothing more than a displacement of responsibility when it comes to the lives she ruins in the process.

"...So what. Do you expect that to excuse you for trying to kill my friends?"

"No. I don't care about what happens to anyone else. I just want the doctor to succeed."

Kumagawa sits there, staring into Rensa's eyes for the next few minutes. Then his expression goes slack with eyes wide at some unknown realization before seamlessly transitioning into a smile that nearly split his face in half.

[Oho. I see how it is now. You aren't even going to allow me the chance to try my hand at being an actual hero, huh?]

"What?"

The screw, as well as the injuries sustained in her fight, disappear as Kumagawa props her upright and holds her face in his hands.

[Hey, hey! Nurse-chan! I never got your name.]

"Why are-"

[Whyare ain't no name I ever heard of. Tell me your name.]

"...Rensa."

[Rensa. Rensa-chan huh? It's a good name. Well Rensa-chan since you have fate pitting you against this whole city, that means you are in the category of the weak. As such, I am now your ally!]

"Ally? But-"

[Yeah you tried to kill me and my friends, yadda, yadda, yadda! So has everyone else! It's fine now that I've gotten my anger out of the way! Or I guess it would be more accurate to say it has been redirected but anyway, I'm going to help you kill Fremea!]

Rensa narrows her eyes in suspicion but Kumagawa shakes his head rapidly as if to shake off the doubt being sent his way.

[No, no, no! When I say kill her, I mean we're going to meet the requirements for 'killing Fremea' that is needed for that doctor of yours to finish what she wants. We're going to take another path to that than just crudely going about it in the boring, standard sense of murder that your good doctor wants!]

"...And how do you expect to do that?"

[Well for starters, I'm going to need you take another one of these!]

On the last syllable of that sentence, Kumagawa had stabbed Rensa in the chest with a Bookmaker screw. As she loses consciousness with the fading of her hair's color, Kumagawa picks her up into his arms.

[Sorry but we don't have time to be sleeping on the job. But since we're friends now, I'll just gently carry you off to our destination and let you nap a bit. You'll need every bit of rest before the main event starts!]

* * *

"Damn it!"

A chorus of violence drove Kamijou Touma to pump his even faster to reach his target. He had no idea of who was on the other side but he was sure that at least one of them was Yakumi Hisako. There was no real telling as to the level of battle that was taking place but no matter what, he wished earnestly to keep to what he had told Kumagawa a short while ago.

That everyone involved could return home happily and live their lives as they had before.

However he wasn't entirely sure if that would include Yakumi. Or even if he wanted to include her.

"Why couldn't you have taken this one, Kumagawa? Isn't this sort of thing what would make you happy? Or are you testing me some more? ….No. I shouldn't think like that. He told me he just wanted to watch some anime that's about to come on. If there's anything he wouldn't lie about, it'd be something as trivial as that!"

He rounds the corner and begins to doubt Kumagawa once more. Not because of an ulterior motive like getting more information about how Touma fights or whatever. That thought is long gone. The motive that he suspects Kumagawa of having in avoiding Yakumi lays before Touma's eyes.

Stretching as far as he could see were swarms of cockroaches. The road was so rank with them that they were clearly crawling on top of each other for several inches above where the ground ought to be.

"...Kumagawa. I don't care what you say about it. I'm going to punch you for this on principal alone."

He looks over to the two lone figures in that mass of glittering chitin. One, a small girl wearing what appeared to be a cross between a sweater and a dress, was wading through the bugs and swatting great swaths in her path. The other, a woman in a lab coat, was standing suspiciously clear of the roaches that seemed to ignore her completely.

"That's her. She seems to be controlling those bugs somehow. That other girl is using an esper power to fight them...that might hold some sort of key to breaking that control. Either way, I better see if that girl will help me out here. Ugh. Why did it have to roaches?"

With that sardonic sigh of defeat, he runs up to a nearby car and climbs on top of it.

"Hey! Exterminator girl!"

The girl stops and slowly turns her head to Touma with look of pure loathing on her face.

"I don't know what's weirder here. The fact that you just super mocked me or that your super dumb enough to get super close to all of this super nastiness. And it's Kinuhata-san to you."

"...Well, it's pretty weird that you don't seem all that affected by this super nastiness."

Now the girl, Kinuhata Saiai, raises her eyebrows in surprise for a moment. Then she nods her head as though affirming something for herself before picking up a cluster of the roaches and readying her arm to chuck them at Touma.

"HEY, HEY, HEY! DON'T EVEN JOKE ABOUT THAT KINUHATA-SAMA! PLEASE! I'M SO SORRY! I SHOULDN'T HAVE MOCKED THE GREAT KINUHATA-SAMA IN SUCH A DISGRACEFUL MANNER!"

She drops the bugs by letting go of them before turning back to Yakumi.

"As long as you super get it, you can drop the sama. Why are you super here, super weirdo?"

He wasn't sure at this point if she was doing it to get him to remark on it so she could make good on committing murder by roaches but Touma has never liked to so boldly spit in fate's face like Kumagawa does without good reason. Quirks of speech not being one in the slightest.

"Is that Yakumi Hisako?"

"Yep."

Touma jumps carefully from parked car to parked car along the sidewalk until he gets close enough to Saiai for them to lower their voices.

"She's trying to have a girl killed and I want to stop her before that happens."

"Fremea?"

"You know her?"

"Yeah. Guess we can super help each other out in that case."

"Do you have a plan?"

Saiai gestures at Yakumi, who stands off a distance, content to watch her opponents struggle against her attack.

"She's super controlling the roaches like I said before. She had apparently super messed with their brains so that they'll eat through super anything in their way. That includes these cars so super keep an eye out."

"What about you? Will you-"

"My Offense Armor creates a super layer of compressed nitrogen around my body. They super can't touch me. Yet. If we super don't get to her soon, she'll super think of a way to get to me. Oh and I'm super sorry but my power doesn't super stretch far enough to protect you."

Touma waves his right hand as a way of explanation as well as saying that her worries are unnecessary.

"Ah that's fine. It wouldn't do any good anyway since my hand can just negate esper powers anyway. On the off chance that it's the case-"

"No such luck. The control method super isn't anything esper related as far as I can super tell. I think it super may have to do with something super chemical.

"Guess I'd be more disturbed at such a stroke of good luck but well that's enough of that."

He turns around this way and that as both a way of seeing what he can work with and seeing how far the bugs had gotten on eating their way through the truck he stands on. So far, their progress was slow moving. Sure the possibility of them being capable of eating through metal exists but such a material takes time for them to get through. Regardless, they were slowly sinking the utility truck second by second. In front of him, attached to the front of the truck bed where the cabin met with the back end, was a metal toolbox that was thankfully unlocked. He swings it open and smiles.

"Now I can be officially disturbed."

"Huh?"

"Does that Offense Armor of your have any other applications?"

"Well it does super let me have super enhanced strength but it's sorta limited."

"How about this truck? Can you push me over to Yakumi, there?"

"I guess but super what are you planning?"

"One look and you should get the gist of it."

Saiai raises an eyebrow at first but, as Touma shows what he had grabbed to her, both eyebrows go up.

"Well you were super right about that. Let's super beat that hag."

She wades over to the back corner of the truck and begins to heave it towards the middle of the road. Yakumi's grin widens at the development.

"Hm, hm, hmmmmm? And just what do you think you're doing there boy? Trying to hit me with that? All it takes is but a second for me to make the roaches work in earnest to get at you."

Her words would make average men drop to their knees to beg for forgiveness but Touma wasn't listening to that in the first place. He just climbs to the top of the truck's cabin, his feet firmly placed so that the toes of his shoes were stuck under the railings around the top, and stares her down.

"Are you the one that drove Tsuchimikado into a corner?"

"Hm?"

"Were you the one that targeted Maika?"

"Well yes but to be fair he came my way first. It's not my fault that he decided to jump the gun. Nor is it my fault he was so blind in his rage that he couldn't see the forest for the trees."

He had been clenching his fists so tightly that a small bit of blood had pooled around where his nails dug into the palms of his hands but with her declaration, Touma relaxed.

"I see. That settles it then."

"Oh? What exactly is settled?"

Touma shakes his head despondently. The truck was being turned so that it would point straight for Yakumi. Roaches gnawed furiously at the trucks materials, taking another several inches since the conversation began.

"I wanted everyone to go home happy after tonight. I wanted to save everyone."

"Ahhh. So you're sad over the fact that you'll have to kill me?"

"No. You aren't even human at this point. I pity anyone that would actually miss a waste of space like you….that's how I need to think about you but the fact is that you are human. No matter how much I hate you, that fact won't change. But neither will the situation. The bugs will get to me soon and Fremea is still in danger. You've forced me to have to consider you as being something less than human just to cope with the situation."

"Aha...ahahahahahahaAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! SO THINGS HAVE MADE IT SO EVEN HEROES LIKE YOU WILL HAVE THEIR MOTIVES CORRUPTED! I MAY NOT HAVE NEEDED-"

"If that's what you want to think then I don't care anymore. Fact is that if I actually had a choice then no matter what, I'd save you. But I can't."

He shakes his head furiously now.

"I can't! I can't! I can't! I can't! I can't! I can't! I can't! Why did you make it so I can't save you no matter what!? Why did you try so hard to be someone that can't be dealt with unless they were dead!? Why did you have to push me this far just to save my friends from the mess you had sucked them into!? Why!?"

There wasn't even the slightest trace of remorse in her eyes. Just madness.

"Hehehehe...my words will never reach a hero like you."

Her words drip with smug, self-satisfaction.

"Just as my words will never reach a villain like you."

His words seethe with sarcastic, self-loathing.

The truck was now aligned. Touma readies himself. So does Yakumi. They stand in their respective positions with their respective ideals poised to clash until one or the other won out. As soon as the noise of the car dropping it's chassis onto hundreds of bugs reverberated in his head, Touma turns his head back to Saiai.

"NOW!"

Saiai pushes against the truck with all her might. The multitude of dead bug carcasses under and in front of the truck allowed for it to propel even faster than what Saiai was capable of but Yakumi moves something in her pocket, the roaches reacting to her will as they eat even faster through the truck and begin to crawl their way up to Touma. He doesn't move yet, though he does nervously eye the insect's movements. They come close to Yakumi just as the roaches are nearly upon him when Touma leans his body almost all the way back as Saiai plants her feet into the ground to stop the truck. It's stop isn't immediate but regardless the sudden change in movement causes the wave of roaches from the front to crest and begin to topple toward Yakumi. She tries to run and use her controlling method in her pocket to avoid them but before she could, Touma springs back up using the sudden braking of the car coupled with the toes of his shoes being wedged into the railings. Yakumi looks up over the truck and wave of bugs at Touma as he sprays her down with the fire extinguisher, a moment later the bugs crash down on her.

The method she had used to control the roaches utilized the plasmagene they use to gain a resistance to insecticides. She had familiarized them with the control chemical and then prepared microscopic scent capsules that used artificial pollen. With one to gather them and another to disperse them, she had created a simple yet nigh perfect method for controlling the roaches.

Touma and Saiai hadn't known as much but they had thought the method to be based on scent. The fire extinguisher wasn't by any means special in terms of it's chemical make-up. The city certainly has more advanced extinguishers but this one was cheaper. It wasn't because it was some cheapo fire extinguisher bought by a guy that couldn't be bothered to get better for a higher price but the fact that the extinguishing mechanisms of how the chemicals would interact that created errors within Yakumi's network of scents that caused the insects to now devour her flesh. Saiai could use her ability to control nitrogen around her to accomplish the same task but not with that same level of speed.

The roaches that had been crawling up to Touma had been signaled by the ones close by that they had found food and began to scurry off in Yakumi's direction. But he paid them no mind. All he could see was the smiling face of the woman that was being eaten alive by a horde of cockroaches.

"...You're actually happy with this."

"Heeheehahahahahahaha! Of course I am! My death was what was needed to move my plan into it's final phase!"

"...I see. Bye then."

The roaches had already moved away from the back of the truck toward Yakumi so Touma walked that way and jumped off to stand beside a bug gut coated Saiai.

"Do you know where Fremea is now?"

"Um, that lady is super still talking back there. Don't you super want to-"

"No. I refuse to indulge someone as far gone as her. Besides we save Fremea, we stop whatever else that woman had up her sleeve."

From his side pocket, Touma's phone rings.

"Hello?"

[Geebus rice Touma-kun, you sound like someone announced another pachinko game instead of another season for your favorite anime.]

"..."

[Damn, you really are fucked up right now huh? Fine, fine. Skipping to business then. Can't find Fremea here and there's no sign of where she went sooooo…]

Saiai, apparently overhearing the conversation, brings her phone up to show the GPS tracking app she had.

"Fremea is super there. Tell that super idiotic pervert where she is."

Touma chuckles nervously on the outside but on the inside he seriously questions the extent of how far Kumagawa's quest for sexual harassment went. Regardless of internal dilemma, he sends Kumagawa the location.

[Learning Core huh? Alrighty that's a big 10 4 good buddy! Good luck on your end with that frisky dingo but don't let the mothball's oddities get to that hellraising pinhead of yours, eh? Hindi Dye will meet you there. Hindi Dye out.]

Touma stares at his phone for awhile before Saiai says something that could halfway be an explanation.

"So he was super talking about Hellraiser Pinhead and super not the insult. Huh. Didn't think he'd be into something super obscure like that but whatever."

"Uh can the great Kinuhata-sama translate for Kamijou-kun?"

"Well that 10 4 deal is something that super comes up in movies for when they want to seem super intelligent about how guys talk on the radio when super all they're doing is saying I understood your last message. It's super stupid but anyway, he super meant you when he said pinhead and I super think he was calling me a mothball. Super don't quite get the rest though."

"...That was probably just gibberish though."

"Oh I super know. But I'm almost positive that he was super talking about the Hellraiser movies there. It's just super interesting is all."

"I don't mind talking while we run but we should hurry up. He went after Fremea to, and I quote, 'recharge his energy by teasing little, blonde girls.'"

"...If he does, I'll super cave his face in hard enough that it'll super stay no matter how many super times he uses All Fiction on himself."

Level 0 and Level 4 join forces to save a mutual friend before bolting off.

* * *

On a rooftop near the Learning Core, Kumagawa ends his phone call with Touma.

[And with that, I have total plausible deniability here!]

"Did you really have to go so far when I'm already using the #2s ability to control where the protection target goes?"

[But of course! Touma-kun may kinda trust me now but he's not an idiot like me. If I were to just show up without any kind of excuse for how I tracked Fremea-chan here, then he would likely push the strangeness of it to the back of his head for a bit but eventually it would rush to the front again just before I stab him in the back. This way, I can set things up here so we can have a decent edge against him and whoever he brings with him! We may be allies on the long term but when it comes to these part-time antagonist roles, I can't afford to not be too cautious about how I approach a situation with him in it.]

Rensa nods her head slightly.

"I see. Then why did you strike me with, what was it, Bookmaker? As far as I can tell, I haven't been granted anything unique like a Skill."

[True but you're starting to become unable to use many of the esper powers in your arsenal right?]

"Yes, I have been curious about that."

[I have some theories about it but let's wait until the main force I had called comes in here with those other fabricated heroes.]

"You seem to have them separated into different categories but are you really sure that they won't just get trapped in Agitate Halation's influence?"

[Nah, they won't. That's my posse you're talking about. If I've done anything right by them, it's to show them just how useless the concept of heroes and villains are outside of manga.]

* * *

 **I feel bad about taking so much time to post chapters but traveling across the country for the holidays as well as work crap has taken up WAY too much of my time. Although that's not even all that great of an excuse when I could have just put down my phone and not had random YouTube vids in the background. That Chinese Index mobile game is dangerously fun. But moving on, this is something to hopefully satisfy everyone that has been following my story until I'm finished with the ending to the Agitate Halation arc. Originally, I was just going to post the whole, fuckhuge thing but I think it's better this way. At least it's something in case I lose motivation again. I don't know. I've just never really liked this arc in NT and not just because of how Fremea's character annoys me. It feels like such an awkward break in the storyline, especially when it stops before Othinus becomes a Magic God. Though I can't talk much when I'm going to have another arc after this before I get into all that. I just want to cement more of an actual story of own to this than to just have Kumagawa running around doing whatever. The next update WILL end this arc and reveal some of the motivations behind the actions of the masterminds behind the screen. That should be done here soonish as I just have the fight with Rensa and some epilogue sort of stuff to throw in. Oh and I've just tried posting updates to the past chapters so that they'll have actual names to them but it seems that this site hates me as it has shifted the top portion over so that it's off center. I'll try to fix it but I'm having enough trouble in posting this chapter as it is so that might have to wait until FanFiction stops messing with me.**


	19. Chapter 19

Meaningless Battle

Suicide_Defined

* * *

Touma had approached the main gate of the Learning Core, alone, with caution due to the sounds of an overwhelming amount of fighting coming from inside. Once he looked in, he had lost nearly all hope of getting in. Beyond the gate lay thousands of people, all battling it out to be the hero that saves Fremea. He might have felt safer if he had Saiai around still but she had split away from him halfway, saying she needed the rest of her team.

"She said that one of them was a Level 5 but unless it's Accelerator I don't see how just one Level 5 can help me break through this mob without having them kill themselves to do it. Damn it. What do I do here?"

[Dude just saw off your right arm again. That'll get people to clear away from the shear sight of it alone, if not for the power.]

Touma turns to his partner in ill fate and smiles wearily.

"I really don't like being sans an arm though. Could you use your Skills to do it?"

[I could but I don't wanna.]

"Kumagawa, please."

[Hey now! I never said I wasn't already ahead of you there! It's just that my feet hurt, it's past my usual bedtime, I'm hungry, I'm already missing my favorite anime, and-]

"Yes, yes. Your life sucks. But what do you have in mind here?"

He says nothing in return but Kumagawa walks out from behind their cover and moves toward the mob, stopping just before the outer rim of the throng of people.

[CALLING ALL SKILL OUT BUDS! CALLING OUT ALL SKILL OUT BUDS! COMMENCE OPERATION: I'M BETTER THAN MOSES!]

Touma thought he was just trying to gain the mob's attention so he can start breaking their wills en masse but he soon saw what he had done. As the mob of heroes had begun to fill the space of the Learning Core, Kumagawa had slipped his Skill Out members into the mix. Everyone else here may number in the thousands compared to those Skill Outs' being around only 250 or so. But that was nearly perfect. Those thousands of people were near totally anarchist in their actions compared to the unification that the 250 some odd had. Now all he need do was call out to them and they will follow his directions. His Skill users push their opponents away to create a path for their leader. With a direct line leading up to the steps of the building known as the Lightning Rod, Kumagawa then turns back to Touma with a smirk.

[You coming?]

Even if it could be possible, it was still weird for him to be so prepared but just as with any other weird thing his brain marks as such, Touma pushes the thought into the 'not necessary for the time being' pile and moves on. They stand before the heavy security shutters and stare at it's impenetrability.

"Ok. So what now then? Since you seem so intent on not using your Skills, I'll assume you want to use brute force. But I don't think you can cut down all this with just your screws. That and how do you know whether or not Fremea is in there?"

[Well look at it! It's a freaking fortress! Fremea is a smart girl so I'm sure she'd have hid here somehow or another. At the very least, out of all the other places here, this is the most secure. Odds are that she would have been found by now in the other spots and since those guys are still being rabid turds, she must be here!]

"Huh. That does makes sense but would they all really stop if just one or two of them found her? They don't have the sort of organization to spread that information so quickly. Wouldn't they just keep fighting no matter what?"

[Come on now! You read the same papers that I did from that old dude we nearly killed. It mentioned in there that the 'heroes', see: rioters, are connected by their collective urge to protect Fremea. There must be some sort of subconscious way for them to know whether or not she's safe or dead or whatever her current condition is or else they would be out there making a mess of things.]

The reasoning was sound but that aspect made Touma feel uneasy. Kumagawa is the sort that would hide what he's really doing under such logic. But Touma couldn't think of what he could possibly be hiding. As far as he knew, they were on the same page with saving Fremea and ending this night as soon as possible. At this point if Kumagawa really does have something planned, there's no way of knowing until everything comes crashing down.

"Heh."

Kumagawa turns to Touma with a frown on his face.

[Hiding a joke from me? I don't like feeling left out, you know.]

"I know but I think I'll hold onto that for later. I'm sure you know as well as I do that you'll be the first to know. Now, how are we getting in?"

Kumagawa's frown deepens but he turns back to the shutters.

[Well back to your lack of belief in my tools, you may be right that a few screws can't get us in but if quality can't solve the issue-]

A terrible symphony of tearing and shredded metal in the form of a constant downpour of screws upon the shutters halts all the fighting from behind Touma and Kumagawa, due to the noise nearly destroying the eardrums of everyone present. By the time it was done, there was nothing left of the entrance at all. No shutters, no doors, even the surrounding material of the building's walls were reduced to scrap and rubble.

[Then quantity can!]

"WHAT!?"

[WHAT!?]

"DAMNIT KUMAGAWA! WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE AT LEAST SENT ME BEHIND COVER OR SOMETHING BEFORE YOU MADE ME DEAF!? YOU COULD HAVE TOLD ME TO COVER MY EARS! THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SLIGHTLY BETTER THAN HITTING THE SHUTTERS WITH ME RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM!"

[CAN'T HEAR YOU MAN!]

Touma screams obscenities as he hauls Kumagawa into the building, after which Kumagawa uses All Fiction to undo all the damage caused in their breaking into the building. This is followed by a continued blast of verbal abuse from Touma but, of course, Kumagawa's ears are just as destroyed so Kumagawa All Fictions the damage to their ears too.

[There, that better?]

"Yeah, finally! Wait...how did you repair the damage on me? My hand stops the supernatural from healing me."

[Because I only specified All Fiction to go to work on your eardrums. That Imagine Breaker of yours might prevent full body healing from the supernatural but as long as I'm not targeting that hand, I can use All Fiction to revert the damage!]

"Wow, that's pretty useful actually. Thanks."

[Yep, yep! No problemo!]

They enter the building slowly, cautious of ambushes. The Lightning Rod museum was so named to bring to mind the idea of overcoming natural calamities through knowledge. Which may sound contradictive to it's contents, being comprised of art galleries, dinosaur exhibits, and so on, but the museum's curator had made it a point to showcase not just the future of preventive and post-disaster measures but also the history of our world's natural disasters.

Touma cups his hands to his mouth as he shouts into the empty darkness.

"FREMEA! FREMEA!"

[Dude if you wanted everyone to know where we were, why not just put a neon sign around your neck and blow an airhorn?]

"We can't be worrying about that right now. Her safety comes first. Besides, when have you been worried about being ambushed?"

Kumagawa shrugs but otherwise says nothing else. They continue to walk through the museum with Touma shouting for Fremea. Eventually, they came upon a dinosaur exhibit. The area was dimly lit by the moonlight behind a giant glass window. There were various skeletons of long dead creatures lining the walls and a very large, carnivorous looking one right in the middle of the room.

"FREMEA! Damnit. Even if she hears us, she won't immediately trust us huh?"

[Yeah, especially me.]

Touma turns his head slowly to his companion and stares at him through exasperated eyes.

"...Why do you say that?"

[Cause I had threatened to molest her for a few laughs. Well, there MAY have been some ulterior motive there but- OW!]

Touma punches his arm, hard.

"NO WONDER SHE WON'T COME OUT THEN YOU IDIOT!"

[HEY, I'M NOT THE ONE THAT IMPREGNATED DOZENS OF INNOCENT SCHOOLGIRLS THIS MORNING! A RAPIST LIKE YOU HAS NO ROOM TELLING ME OFF FOR SOME LIGHT MOLESTATION!]

"THAT WAS ALL LIES AND YOU KNOW IT!"

[YEAH, I KNOW! BUT I THOUGHT IT'D BE FUNNY IF FREMEA HEARD ABOUT IT! IT'S PRETTY FUNNY, RIGHT!? I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME YOU MIDGET!]

"NYAH! IN THE FIRST PLACE, WHO'RE YOU CALLING A MIDGET!?"

The two idiots go completely silent at the high-pitched scream that followed Kumagawa's provocation.

[Oh, Fremea-chaaaaaaan? Where, oh where art thou?]

"Stop being a creep. Fremea! Kinuhata Saiai sent us!"

[Zura-chan is looking for you too, so hurry up and get your pint-sized butt out here!]

"Nyah! Nyah! Shut up perverts!"

Touma's heart was a bit rattled at the prospect of being grouped with Kumagawa's reputation but they follow the sounds of the shrill voice until they come to the front of the large skeleton. Her small head pokes out of the mouth of the creature, of all places. There was no way for either of the two boys to get up to her without risking their weight snapping the supporting wires as it wasn't really designed for the added weight.

"Kumagawa, can you use All Fiction to make your weight into nothing?"

[I get what you're thinking but that's not really how All Fiction works. Granted, I say that I make things into nothing as a way of simplifying things but it's much more complicated than that. I don't really know physics well enough to know what would happen if an object lost it's bond to the Earth's gravity but it's more than likely she'd suffer the same amount of damage that she'd get if she were to jump out now if I were to try carrying her out of there.]

"Damn. What can we-"

A brighter than bright light floods the room and nearly blinds it's occupants as something crashes through that giant window. It rolls along the floor until it leaps upright and stands with hands on it's hips. Once their eye's were adjusted to the light, they saw a long-haired person with a metallic, magenta body. A savage grin spreads across the person's face.

"Hey. Hey, hey, hey! Rensa-chan's here now, so I think you need to give up. Anyone who gives up gets a quick death. Then again, your fate has already been decided either way. Hee hee hee~."

Touma braces himself for a fight as he stares the new challenger down and talks to Kumagawa without looking away from Rensa.

"Kumagawa, do you know anything about her?"

[Hm? Yeah, I fought her back over by Fremea-chan's place. Thought I screwed her good enough to not worry about her coming back but I guess that's just my luck, huh?]

Rensa glances over at Kumagawa with a raised eyebrow.

"Hah? Don't think I've seen you before so you're probably talking about the most recent Rensa right?"

[What? Did she tag you in or something? Am I going to have to Stone Cold Stun both of you?]

"Hahahahahaha! Man you are a funny guy! Here."

She pulls something out of her long hair and rolls it along the ground. Kumagawa casually stops it by lightly stepping on it with the toes of his shoe.

[What's this?]

"That's the hypothalamus of the previous Rensa you had fought with~."

[OH GROSS!]

With that scream, Kumagawa kicks the cylinder away as it crashes into a pillar, releasing it's contents across the floor.

"...Wow. That's pretty cold of you. Couldn't someone like you have just held onto that while also holding onto the faint hope she could be saved?"

Kumagawa crouches down to wipe uselessly at his shoe as he speaks.

[Sorry but I just don't do too well with the icky, gory stuff. If I get so much as a papercut, it's all over for the lunch in my gut.]

"Guess I can't say that I didn't see that coming considering the data she had gained from her fight against you. Though, there is some data that isn't accessible for some reason but oh well. The show must go on! When I had said 'previous' in reference to the Rensa you had fought, I wasn't speaking of another body. This cybernetic countermeasure for Level 5s costs way too much to make and maintain for there to be any more than one right now. That and individuality in something this strong is a danger to the ones in charge. So Rensa was created to be able to freely exchange brains, pilots, much like an arm or leg on this body. No matter what, as long as this body isn't beyond repair, Rensa can be piloted by anyone."

Touma pales at her explanation.

"Why? Why would you go so far to kill Fremea when they have reduced your worth to being little more than a battery?"

"Huh? How do you know- ah, actually it doesn't really matter. You're both going to die anyway. My master saved me from a situation far worse than this. I don't feel like spilling how bad it was to a bleeding heart like you but considering that my current life is FAR better now, that alone should tell you just how bad it was for little, pathetic me. For my master, I would do anything. If she wants that little girl dead for her plans, then it couldn't make me happier to watch the life drain from those tiny eyes~."

Touma says nothing in response but narrows his eyes at Rensa. Kumagawa, on the other hand, had finished wiping nonexistent germs away from his shoe and takes a few steps forward.

[No need to be so pissed, Touma-kun. She is capable of replicating the powers of the Level 5s but if that's all then there's no problem. If she's all there is between us and saving Fremea-chan, then we just need to mess this Frankenstein up real good!]

"Hey now. Who said I was here to fight either of you?"

Kumagawa and Touma stare at her in confusion, much to her sadistic glee.

"It's already over. You were all led here from the very beginning!"

This voice hadn't come from Rensa but had instead originated from something much closer. At some point, Fremea had come down from the dinosaur's mouth and had hid herself behind Touma. She glances down with horror at the voice. It had come from Fremea's pocket. It was the artificial voice created by the vibrations of beating wings from the Dark Matter beetle she carried with her.

"Hee hee hee~. If you're gonna trust your comrades, you have to doubt them sometimes too. This thing tried to stop you so many times. 'Don't do it!', 'Don't go there!', 'Please, listen to what I'm trying to say!', and 'Please, at least destroy this body of mine!'"

Anger rose from Touma as he saw the look of betrayal on Fremea's face.

"You bitch."

"Whoa! Whoa! Calm down now! I just said that it was all over anyway so there's no need to waste your energy on being mad at me. I've placed explosives all over this building. All I need do is flick the switch and watch you all die. From the moment you all set foot in here, your fate was already sealed! Even if Kumagawa brings you back with that All Fiction crap, she will still die and be the trigger needed for my master to ascend beyond! No matter what, you have all lost!"

Touma had initially moved to protect Fremea but soon saw the futility. He can't stop her from activating the bombs as she was too far and could likely use some function within her cybernetic body to send the signal out to her bombs. He couldn't save Fremea if the building's central pillar was destroyed and it all came crashing down on them. He couldn't rely on Kumagawa since he would need to know where the bombs were to use All Fiction and would have a hard enough time surviving through the carnage to follow on his own to save anyone else. Even if he could count on him making Fremea's death into nothing, it would still be enough to allow Yakumi's plan to come to fruition.

As Rensa had said, there was nothing he could do.

"Safety release. Password input complete. Okay, everyone! Time for an explosion show with no special trick to it! Bombs activate!"

Touma, as useless as he knew it to be, had moved to cover Fremea's body. He braced himself for the inevitable but found nothing but silence waiting for him. His tightly shut eyes open cautiously as he looks around him. Everything was as it was.

"What? Hey. Why didn't my fireworks go off!? What did you do Misogi!?"

Kumagawa impishly tilts his head in confusion.

[Why ask me? I can't do anything unless I had already known where the bombs were. But I wouldn't be worrying about me right now. You have other problems.]

From behind Rensa, an explosion rings out as something crashes into the helicopter outside. She whirls around and meets the green eyes of a giant, hovering, white beetle.

"Is this some kind of joke!? I had you completely powerless with my interference!"

Without even bothering to watch the helicopter crash to ground with black smoke, the rhinoceros beetle spoke with its artificial voice while also flapping its thin wings to fly.

"The primary consciousness means nothing with Dark Matter. You even used that characteristic to restrict my actions. But that also means I do not particularly need my primary consciousness. Unlike the Misaka Network, each individual unit is not controlled by one large consciousness and each individual personality is not given importance either. The more I split apart, the more my consciousness is split apart into independent minds and they join back together into a single consciousness when I join back together. If you break a cookie in two, it still tastes the same and it regains its original form if you place the two pieces back together. But that doesn't matter. I have something to say to you people who enjoy creating collisions between heroes like a game of billiards."

The giant beetle flew through the broken window just like Rensa had. He caused his own outer shell to shatter for his true, human, form to come forth.

"Do not underestimate a Level 5."

With a great roar, giant pure white wings burst from Kakine's back. Prompted by the other boy's will to fight, Touma stood up from Fremea and held up his fist while Kumagawa produced a screw from emptiness into his hand.

A Level 5 at one side. A Minus and Level 0 on another. Rensa was surrounded but still, she laughed.

"Heh… You really are amazing, doctor. Hee hee hee~. So you took this all into account! It makes sense. Why would you need me to simply monitor an explosion? …But you should have just told me from the beginning! Fuck!"

"It's over for you Rensa."

Touma speaks as he walks toward her.

"There's three of us. You may be able to copy the powers of the Level 5s but that's meaningless here. You're facing a Level 5 that had put Accelerator at a stalemate and someone from another world that had beaten them both. Then you have me with Imagine Breaker. There's no way you can win here with these odds against you!"

From his side, Touma feels the slimy aura of Kumagawa's smile.

[That's right, Rensa-chan. YOU can't win here no matter what. So to that end, I'll be your ally.]

Before anyone could react, Kumagawa had crossed the length of the room and rammed his screw into Rensa's gut, her body losing function as it leans onto his chest.

"Guh! Wh-what are you-"

[That's enough out of this Rensa-chan. It's time for a switch.]

He reaches up into that wild hair and presses against something, Rensa's consciousness going with whatever it was that was pulled out of her head as well as the screw in her chest. Kumagawa takes a cylinder out of his pocket and replaces the one that was in Rensa's head with it. As she awakens again, her eyes reveal an entirely different personality as she turns her expressionless face to Kumagawa.

"Rensa pilot 29 online...hm. I assumed our plan worked, Kumagawa Misogi?"

[Without a hitch! Though I did have to sorta kill you by shattering that container your, ah, co-worker had so carelessly rolled over to me to keep up appearances but not to worry! I successfully fooled everyone here by distracting them with meaningless conversation so I could All Fiction you back to my feet and stuffed you into my pocket before anyone could see!]

Rensa sighs and pushes herself away from Kumagawa.

"Well that is regrettable but it's her fault for actually being air-headed enough to throw my container to someone like you."

Kakine raises his voice as he yells.

"Why!? Why would you help her!?"

[Come on now, Ringo-san. You should know that I would obviously be on the side of whoever is the weakest. Rensa-chan here may have access to all the powers of the Level 5s and she may seek Fremea-chan's death but that doesn't take away from the fact that she has every hero in this city after her, including the two of you. Everyone between Level 5 and 0 wants Rensa-chan's head. That's not something I can ignore. I'm an ally of the weak, after all.]

Kumagawa stands at Rensa's side with Kakine and Touma at opposite ends of the expanse.

[You'll win here. That's just a fact when I'm the one fighting on the other side. But it's also a fact that no one has ever felt even an ounce of victory after fighting me.]

Hopelessness and despair radiates from his cold eyes as he looks back and forth between the two. Screws appear in both of his hands as he points them to either side.

[I'll make sure you both know how a true loser fights a losing battle.]

To have lost Kumagawa as an ally is a huge blow to those that wish for Fremea's safety. It's true that he isn't invincible and with every Level 5 outside fighting, they'll eventually be dragged into the fray. Even with someone as quasi-immortal as Kumagawa, he can't win against so many all at once. As long as they focus a decent portion of their forces on him and have a smaller division to take down Rensa, they can win. But as he had said, this Minus is the kind of person that can snatch that feeling of triumph away from those that beat him. In all reality, there would be no victors this night.

Which is why it stunned everyone to hear laughter from an unexpected side of the room.

[...I've already told you that I hate being left out of a joke and yet you provoke me when there's such a heavy mood. My, my, I seem to have taught you well, Touma-kun!]

Touma was doubled over as he laughed even harder. Everyone else could only look on in utter confusion but Kumagawa only wore a small, knowing smile. Eventually he managed to compose himself enough to stand and return Kumagawa's smile.

"I knew that you'd do this. Even when you had pulled that act off so perfectly, I knew. Yet, I don't feel the slightest bit of despair or rage. No matter who wins or loses here, it's all the same right? Really, all of this tension was for nothing in the end. Damn it...I feel like you could have set this all up from the beginning and yet have just winged it the entire time."

[Maybe. But aren't you worried about Fremea-chan? Rensa here wants her dead after all.]

"Maybe. But aren't you worried about your show? This will definitely take up a hell of a lot more time then if you had just stayed on our side to begin with."

[Well, that's just my luck you know? I can't, in good conscious, leave a cute girl like this to fight such odds all by her lonesome. Besides now that I have her with me, I can achieve a harem squared ending with Rensa-chan and Enshuu-chan! Two harems worth of girls for the price of only two girls! With such powerful women at my side, I can finally compete with the harem that you have gathered! Look on my works and despair, ye deflated hedgehog!]

The Crawling Minus points both of the screws he wields as well as the dozens in the air that became projected by his will at his foe with a Cheshire Cat's smile.

"I won't let that happen. I won't let anyone else get corrupted by you, you fake hedgehog!"

The Imagine Breaker crouches before taking off in a dead sprint with his right hand clenched and a relieved grin on his face.

These two that walk the path of misfortune do not disapprove of the actions and motivations that led the other here. They both fight for the ones they view as defenseless and could easily see that even the slightest deviation in events could have put either one on the other side of this fight. But more than that, they both know that no matter what, the ones they want to protect will be saved regardless of the outcome. So then, as the question naturally arises, why is it that they fight?

Kumagawa may be an easier case to see through as he's just simply the kind of person to take the most undesirable path and enjoys the impossibility of it but what about Touma?

His ideal way is to resolve an issue in as quick and painless a way as he can. Granted, he has almost never been able to actually achieve anything like that but that is still something he strives for. Even when he had fought with Thor, the experience crazed member of GREMLIN, Touma hadn't felt as nearly into the fight as his opponent was. He just wanted to stop Thor from fighting so he could get himself patched up from the self-inflicted gunshot wound he took on as a handicap to match Touma's own wound.

Even though everything else had been resolved about the incident those two had wrapped themselves up in, Touma couldn't stand having to fight Thor. He couldn't stand hurting someone that had fought at his side. Which makes this all the more strange. Kumagawa was someone that had antagonized him and hurt his friends, of course, but he still fought as hard as Touma has to protect people he doesn't even know when he has far heavier matters on his plate.

Perhaps Touma has come to realize that Kumagawa is simply playing both sides and has no real malicious intent toward Fremea.

Perhaps it's the fact that Kumagawa has corrupted him into accepting misfortune as he does, with a simple smile and a laugh right in the face of risk and death.

Perhaps it's the fact that no one will stay permanently hurt from this battle and everyone will be saved as he had so earnestly wished.

Perhaps it's the fact that this long, long night will finally come to an end.

Perhaps it's a variable unseen by anyone that influences Touma to smile right back at that mass of negativity given flesh.

Whatever the reason, Kamijou Touma clenches his right hand and sprints over to Kumagawa Misogi for their second fight.

Kumagawa faces him as he approaches rapidly while speaking to Rensa at his side.

[You get Ringo-san. I'll take care of this shitty protag.]

"Understood."

The two race towards their respective opponents and throw their full power at them.

Screws come soaring through the air for Touma. Their number was too great for him to outright avoid and the twists that run along the pointed end would shred his hand if he were to try batting them away. If he took a step back and dodge just before they hit, it may be possible to clear the volley but then there's still the matter of Kumagawa chasing right after all that. So Touma does the only thing he can. He presses forward.

As soon as one of the screws nears him, he twists his body to let one pass his right side and grabs it while continuing to sprint. The numerous screws that shot at him were batted aside by the one he held or otherwise shattered as he punched at them.

[Wha-]

"Those screws don't have the same quality to them all, right? You told me yourself that you have a tough time producing that many screws at once in a fight. Since those things likely come from your force of will, the quality of screws depends entirely on that will. This screw has enough to stay even when I grab it with my right hand while the others can just be smashed by it. But that's not all you got is it? You set things for us to fight so stop playing dumb and throw everything you have at me!"

The screws dissipate as Kumagawa relinquishes his delusions from reality and leaps backwards through the air, landing on top of the skeletal dinosaur.

[You really want to amp up the difficulty here? Fine. How about this then!?]

He drives a screw, underfoot, into the spine of the dinosaur as Touma halts his advance.

It should be reiterated that All Fiction has been shown to be capable of denying death.

Even if that death was millions of years ago.

As the flesh and blood monster of prehistoric times rears it's massive head back towards him and roars, Touma sprints the other way.

"WHAT THE HELL!? WHEN I SAID TO THROW EVERYTHING YOU HAD AT ME, I DIDN'T MEAN TO SIC A BEAST LIKE THAT ON ME!"

Kumagawa had worked his way up to the pursuing dinosaur's head as he called after his prey.

[HAHAHAHA! Sorry but you know I've got a heart of pyrite! If you tell me to give it my all, of course I'd just cheat and bring in a T-rex! Now stop being so cruel and let Rex-chan have her multi-million year delayed dinn-]

The Tyrannosaur stops chasing Touma as it realizes that there was a meal closer by it that was making himself known. It's head shakes Kumagawa off and sends him flying into one of the building's pillars as it stalks toward him. Before he could grasp what had just happened, Kumagawa gets the upper half of his body chewed off by the carnivore. Touma felt just a slight amount of pity before the beast turns it's now bloodied maw back toward him and curses his late opponent's name as he runs away.

* * *

Kakine was having a hard time with his opponent as well.

Once Rensa had closed the distance, he had thought he had known what to expect. That she might try interfering with his abilities again or make use of Accelerator's to brute force matters but what had happened next was far beyond what he could have foreseen.

He had been sent flying back through the broken window by a giant, pink, cartoonish hammer.

Kakine stands back up from that insane attack and gets ready to fly back through the window but sees that Rensa has followed.

"...Why are you out here? Wasn't your mission to kill Fremea?"

"It still is. However, Kumagawa Misogi's condition for his cooperation was that he would be the one to kill her. So therefore, I shall buy him time to accomplish that task."

He didn't know by what power she had used just now to attack him but Kakine knew it had to have been a Skill, considering Kumagawa's involvement. But he doubts the current Rensa would tell him what her Skill is. If it was that last one, then maybe she might have gone at length about it just to assert her arrogance over him but this one is far too cautious for that. Instead, he'll just have to make due with the knowledge that she has a Skill and figure things out during their fight.

He launches over at her at a blinding speed, swinging white wings of dark matter. Rensa crouches under the left wing and swipes at it as it passes. Kakine's left set of wings jerks his entire body as though something of an unimaginable strength had gripped onto it. He awkwardly turns his head to look back and is hit by a wad of burning spit. He screams as visions of someone else's life, a life of experimentation that was more like sadistic torture, slams into his head.

"Skeleton Key followed by Acid Drop and finished with Syphilis Sympathy. It doesn't work quite the same as esper powers but Skills can be used with a surprising amount of efficiency."

From the sounds of it, she was shifting usage between multiple Skills. Kakine figures that Kumagawa must have traded her ability to copy espers for copying Skill users. The good thing about it was this was something entirely new to her and thus, she's having to learn on the go just as much as he is. The bad, however, was in the fact that she was learning how to use Skills, and multiple ones at that, rather quickly. If he didn't end things soon, she would destroy him.

Kakine detaches his wings as well as the portion of his mind that was being manipulated into seeing those horrific memories as he turns back to Rensa. Before either of them could move the sound of someone clicking their tongue forces their attentions on the newcomer.

"God damn. I realize you're new to this business involving the dark side, number 2, but I still can't believe you're getting pushed around by this fucking tin can."

From around the corner of the building, Accelerator comes casually walking over to Kakine's side.

"Where's your brat?"

"Fremea should still be inside but the cyborg is too much for me, alone. As far as I can tell, she can copy Skills."

Accelerator's eyebrows raise at his words. Not with surprise or apprehension but just with a mild amount of amusement.

"That explains all those Skill Outs that Kumagawa has out there. They've been handling the fake heroes well enough that I thought I could leave it to them and go the fuck home but I guess I should've known better when that piece of shit is involved."

Rensa looks between the two of them for a moment before speaking.

"Do you plan on trying to take me on alone, Accelerator, while you let Kakine back inside? Your powers would have been more than a match for my copied over vector control ability but Skills are still something beyond your comprehension, are they not?"

"Heh. Maybe. But that hasn't stopped me before. Besides, I already know that spiky haired idiot is inside. Why would I need to go through such a cliché as letting the hero run off to save the princess when he's already in there? I'll just kick back and let this be a good opportunity to figure that Skill shit out while the number 2 and I mop the fucking floor with you. So don't die too quick on us you overpriced hunk of scrap metal!"

Black and white wings roar from the backs of the two strongest espers in Academy City as they hurl themselves toward the Skill using cyborg.

* * *

Fremea slowly stood up as she gathered all her strength and announced what she truly wanted to do.

"This time, I will be the one to-"

Before she could do anything though, a hand clapped down on her shoulder, making her jump nearly to the ceiling.

"Ah. Sorry about that. I was trying to wait since it seemed like you were having some cool revelation and it would've been rude to interrupt but-"

"THAT MAKES IT BETTER TO JUST SCARE ME AFTER THE FACT!? IN THE FIRST PLACE, WHO ARE YOU!?"

The girl who had scared this little blonde as though she had seen a ghost was taken aback by this shrill blast of acoustics but she recovers quickly enough.

"Well let's just call me a manager of sorts for now."

"A...manager? Sorry but I have something I need to do so-"

"I know. But what you're trying to do has a proper place and time for it. Now isn't that time."

Fremea was suspicious from the start but all of this was making her really consider her options until Enshuu sighed.

"I'm not saying you can't, I'm saying you need to wait for the right timing. As it is now, you might just complicate things for everyone fighting those monsters. I have things set so everyone can go home happily and in one piece should you use that power of yours at the most opportune moment."

"Others have tried using that kind of logic to manipulate me before..."

"I won't deny that. Nor will I deny my attempt at manipulating you. Fact is if you use that power now, all of my planning goes right down the drain. I won't try to lie and tell you that I have your best intentions in mind or that I'm going to help you because I care for you or the others out there because I really don't care about any of that."

"Nyah...you're really honest for someone that needs my help."

"Because I'm not trying to win you over with some sugar-coated lies or twisted reasoning. I want you to go along with what I have planned of your own free will. Nothing else will work alongside that power of yours if it goes against your own will. I can't really stop you either way. It's your choice."

Fremea wasn't sure of how to think about this girl or what she proposes. She's brutally honest and seems to have an agenda of her own but she doesn't seem to be lying about wanting everyone to come out of this alive and well. She also seems to be hiding something else but...well there was no way of telling for Fremea.

She could end this whole thing now but could she really say that it won't somehow hurt the efforts of those trying to save her? This hesitation on Fremea's part may seem contradictive to her strong urge to become the hero to save all who were protecting her but this wasn't hesitation out of fear for her life but rather fear for others lives.

Fremea felt that this whole situation was her fault.

Everyone fighting out there was doing so because of her.

They were being hurt because of her.

And, most importantly for her, they may die because of her.

If this manager girl was right, everyone could be saved unilaterally without any complications. But if she was wrong, or if she was simply lying, all of Fremea's motivations to become the hero would be moot. It was like being given a switch that could solve world hunger in an instant but then being told by someone that it isn't the right time, saying that it would do more harm than good if it was used at the wrong time. Could you really trust that person to know better? Could you really trust that they don't?

"...I'll hear you out. But if this starts going anywhere bad, I'll end this there and then. So make it quick because I can't afford to lose anymore time."

"Hmmm. That'll be slightly difficult but oh well. Just...wait until the end of my explanation before you make any decisions."

"...Why is that?"

"Because my plan relies heavily on the actions of a total wildcard on this chess board."

* * *

Touma has been through worse. Fighting off the black wings of death against Accelerator, stopping an angel from destroying the world, stepping up to superhuman saints, the list goes on. But this was probably the worst he's had to experience since Russia. How else could one describe the horror of having to sprint away from a carnivorous living fossil?

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! WHAT THE HELL, KUMAGAWA!? THERE'S PLAYING DIRTY AND THEN THERE'S THIS MADNESS! WHY DID I HAVE TO INVITE THIS KIND OF MISFORTUNE ON MYSELF BY FEELING ALL RELIEVED!?"

He screams his bemoans of fate as he runs his legs ragged getting away from the Tyrannosaur but it was gaining on him. More importantly, he was running out of options. Touma hadn't been to the Learning Core, never mind this Lightning Rod place, before so he had no clue about the layout and was rapidly fearing having to hit a dead end somewhere.

It didn't help that he was essentially killing any chance of escape by messing up his precognition. It's not really his fault though. The primal fear that comes from a giant monster like that was making him unintentionally force his ability. The more he ran, the more he would overthink his options. The more he overthinks his options, the more useless his precognition becomes as it requires him to not think on it to begin with.

But it's not as though such a horrifying situation can't be turned into an advantage.

If there's one thing that can be gained from modeling your actions after Kumagawa, it is the fact that no weakness can't be turned into a strength and vice versa.

With the semblance of a plan in mind, Touma veers around a corner with the heavy stomps of the Tyrannosaur behind him. Not far down the tall hallway was the dead end he had feared coming to before. There were some windows on either side of the walls next to him but these were not part of his plan. Rather than despair, triumph paints Touma's face. He puts his back to the wall and faces the charging behemoth head on.

It's bloody maw widens with a roar, belting his senses with the rank stench of decay and rot, as it leans down to scoop up it's next snack but Touma stands firm. With no more than 15 feet separating him from death, he sprints into a baseball player's slide underneath it's head. The sound of bone shattering against the wall replaces the Tyrannosaur's warcry as it is silenced, though that isn't because of the impact killing the beast.

Just as death can be undone, so can life.

Clinging to the ribcage of the returned fossil, was the Minus with the Cheshire Cat's grin as he springs to the ground and rushes Touma with a speed next to none can react to.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex may have become a skeleton again but that hardly stops it from becoming a lethal problem. Now that it hadn't any living tissue to support it, the bones followed the laws of physics and began to crash down on the two underneath it.

Just as when he had faced the onslaught of screws from earlier, his options are limited. Any which way he goes, he'll have to throw himself wildly out of the skeleton's fall but that would leave him vulnerable to Kumagawa's attacks. The same would apply to fighting right here and now with the exception being that Kumagawa would come out of it unscathed while Touma would certainly be crushed by these old bones.

But a question occurs to him, would he be in any actual danger either way?

One way to find out.

As Kumagawa draws within range, Touma lashes his right hand out as he grabs onto the boy's messy hair with a death grip on every follicle of hair he had. But no more is done, he simply holds tight onto the hair. It takes all of a second for Kumagawa to register what he was doing before he plants a foot into Touma's chest and, with something of a spin, he kicks the both of them out of the way of the crashing bones and out the windows.

Outside was absolute chaos. Skills, esper powers, and normal weaponry were being used and flung everywhere. Touma looks up from the ground to see Accelerator and Kakine fighting Rensa to a standstill. She was freely exchanging and weaving Skills on the fly as the two strongest espers flew at her with blinding speeds. They were keeping up but only just barely. It wouldn't be long before her use of Skills outpaces their own unnatural abilities.

[That was impressive! Honestly I didn't think you'd have it in you to pull something like that off. You fooled me right til the last second and even when I caught on, it was far too late. Geeze, I wish I didn't have that promise I made to Misaki-chan hanging over me so I can take you out of commission for my own peace of mind!]

Touma smirks as he stands to meet Kumagawa as he approaches from around the corner.

"I knew you weren't really going for the kill. If that was the case you'd have just let us both get smashed by that skeleton."

[Really? It could also be because you latched onto my hair. I haven't the slightest clue if I could use All Fiction on myself, let alone you, with that No Fun Allowed hand you got on me. What if I just saved us both out of pure survival instincts? Aren't you trusting me a bit too much?]

Kumagawa's grin widens dangerously but Touma only raises an eyebrow.

"I seriously doubt it. It's not like I've seen for sure but I have the feeling you would care even less about your own safety without All Fiction. Though, I have to admit to that last part, I wouldn't have been able to pull that off if it was the first time we met."

[Aw! Does that mean I've finally grown on you like a stray dog that follows you everywhere?]

Touma chuckles at this.

"More like a tumor actually."

[Ooooo! Nice one!]

"To be honest, it's less about whether I've come to accept you more than it is the reverse."

[Huh?]

"If you still hated me like you had before today, you'd probably have let that skeleton smash us both. I'm sure you would make certain I'd survive the experience, but that'd be the extent of what you'd do. That's not the case anymore is it?"

Kumagawa fidgets like a shy schoolgirl and speaks with a falsetto that would fool absolutely no one as he playfully punches Touma's shoulder.

[G-geeze! You're gonna make me blush, you baka!]

Every light punch was making Touma's stomach churn with disgust.

"...Ok, now I wish you had let me get crushed so I wouldn't have to have witness this."

[Hey, anything to wipe that smug look off your face. I would've done it with a screw or two but I kinda need you intact for just a while longer. After that, I'm done with this crap and I'm done with any other crap that'll come along for the next few weeks.]

"Yeah, yeah. I doubt things will go that well for you but-"

[DON'T YOU STIFLE MY DREAMS!]

"-but what now? That Rensa girl is still fighting it out so I assume she's not in on whatever you have planned. How do we stop her before she gets strong enough to overpower those two?"

Kumagawa looks on at the battle before them with melancholy.

[We do nothing. It's all up to the power of someone much more suited for the role of a hero than you or I.]

* * *

They were being outpaced in power and speed now. Rensa's growing acclimation to using Skills was becoming too much for Accelerator and Kakine to handle. Perhaps that is due to her previous capability as a vessel for emulating esper powers. Regardless of how it was she could learn so quickly, the two strongest were beginning to fight a losing battle.

"This is making me wonder why this body was designed for esper powers to begin with. Skills seem to be far better in suppressing esper abilities."

It's not as though the two were totally helpless against individual Skills but this torrential multitude of powers that were being freely exchanged and mixed was becoming too much for them to analyze and come up with a countermeasure for. Given time, they might come up with something but this was not a situation where they could spare that. Any time they came up with one for a particular Skill combo, Rensa would immediately abandon it for another and then another and so on.

"Well. At this point, I don't think I even need to bother with going on the offensive with you two. I'll go assist Kumagawa Misogi in terminating Agitate Halation."

"Like we'd fucking let you, tin can!"

Accelerator kicks a chunk of the ground at Rensa with a furious speed. She uses several Skills to destroy it before it could get close but Kakine is already flanking her with an attack of his own, firing blasts of Dark Matter. Old Skills are ditched and new ones are combined to increase her evasion in vain as Accelerator grabs her face and reverses the vectors all over her body's make up.

Blood flow, neurons, brain waves, it all becomes scrambled and destroyed within her.

She should have exploded into red paste right there and then.

But with one hand clasped on her shoulder and another gripping the screw embedded into Accelerator's chest as he slumps to his knees, Kumagawa saves Rensa.

[Sorry, Accel-kun, but I've got other plans for this nurse.]

Accelerator looks up at him with what little strength he can muster while being under Bookmaker's influence and sighs.

"You goddamn...bastard."

There was no animosity in that utterance, just resignation. But Rensa doesn't quite pick up on this, sighing herself.

"I'm sorry about that Kumagawa Misogi. I got too arrogant with these Skills and it had left me vulnerable. Thank you."

[...I wouldn't thank me if I were you. After all-]

Kakine charges in with Dark Matter wings outstretched toward Kumagawa under the assumption of the worst possible scenario.

"HOW DARE YOU-"

[-it's not what you think.]

All across Learning Core, everyone present had screws pin them to the ground by their clothes. Several of the stronger ones had Bookmaker screws impaled through their chests.

Kakine glowers from where he had fallen while Rensa looks across the courtyard with a shocked expression.

"That was...impressive. Why couldn't you have done this sooner? And what did you mean by it's not what I think it to be?"

Kumagawa grins as he walks away with his back turned.

[Hmm. Where to start? As to why I couldn't do it sooner, I needed all the pieces to fall into just the right places. Kind of impossible to ask of someone as chaotic as me to bring proper order to this mess but that's why I have a smart friend to do all the hard thinking for me! As to the later half of that-]

"Guh-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! WHAT IS THIS!?"

Her screams as well as the unnerving sounds of something being stretched beyond it's limits stops Kumagawa.

"That's your answer."

Her stomach expands wildly like there was something trying to escape from it.

"B-but this is some kind of esper power! It's AIM based but I shouldn't be able to-"

"Hee hee! This is how it ends huh.."

Two voices echoed from within Rensa's body as her eyes widen in confusion and pain.

"Enshuu-chan gave me this plan earlier while you were knocked out. She told me how that bitch was using some supercomputer to somehow transmit her thoughts or soul or whatever into the atmosphere so she could transcend humanity and blah, blah, blah. I don't give a shit. The whole thing went over my head to be honest. But what I did understand was that Fremea-chan's power can cause small change that can translate to far larger change than what your doctor can control herself. From there, Fremea-chan can just grab hold of that piece of shit and throw her into something we can manage. Or in other word's, you."

To expand on his less than layman's understanding, Yakumi was utilizing the Shading Computer that used the AIM diffusion fields as a medium to transfer her consciousness into the AIM diffusion fields of the city and become a AIM thought being with the ultimate goal of having the system use all other manner of fluids, like oceans and wind currents.

But that is her Achilles' Heel.

The shading computer uses every movement of the target fluid to perform its calculations. Which includes even the most minute of fluids, namely Fremea's Agitate Halation. It may be a small scale AIM based power but as long as the connection exists, even that small amount of influence can be made to cause great levels of change on the system as a whole. All that was needed was for Fremea to become aware of this fact. A fact that could only have come about when she has been as involved with her power as she as tonight.

Her newfound degree of control has allowed her to throw the existence known as Yakumi Hisako into Rensa's system.

"That...doesn't make sense! I no longer have the ability to become a vessel for AIM based abilities!"

"Yes, you do. The part that makes you, you, is what is blocking you from using that body for it's intended purpose but that doesn't mean the body has changed at all, right?"

The cybernetic vessel known as Rensa was designed for AIM based power, not Skill powers. In those terms, her body had simply become inert for it's original purpose as she used Skills more and more. It's not as though her body has ceased to function. It's more of a communication issue between her and the body itself. The reasoning for why AIM based powers and Skill based powers were seemingly incompatible is a mystery to all parties concerned but there are other matters for them to get to.

"Really. If your good doctor hadn't been so goddamn blind in her insanity, she could've seen this coming. I'm sure this result would have come about with or without me but at least...it is with me. Not that is good for you. I'm sure that's how you'll feel about it in a minute at any rate."

"W-what? No. I won't let you take her!"

Her desperate cries of betrayal make Kumagawa wince but he turns to face her. If only out of respect.

"You really do care for her huh. I wish we could have met sooner but...there's no sense in stalling over so many 'what ifs'."

"NO! ENOUGH OF THIS!"

Through the pain, confusion, and rage, Rensa gathers up all the Skills she has made use of over the night and throws their collective weight at Kumagawa.

"...Sorry."

The sound of a great many something's shattering booms across the courtyard.

"W-wha-no. NONONONONO! NOOOOOOO!"

This wail of someone who knows they are about to lose everything is stopped just as suddenly as her new gathering Skills were, with several Bookmaker screws impaling her.

"...You didn't have to be here for this part, you know."

Touma stands from where he had been when he negated a portion of that Skill spam.

"I do though. I need to see this through to the end."

Kumagawa gives no reply but instead walks over to Rensa's slumped over body as it laughs uncontrollably. Bookmaker affects the entirety of it's target but since Yakumi wasn't the target for it, she must have escaped it's influence.

"Hahahahahaha! Your screw may have taken Rensa out but I'll have control soon! I may not be able to fight for long BUT-"

"Shut up already, you cliché."

Kumagawa's hand jabs straight into Rensa's enlarged gut and as he pulls it out of her-

"All Fiction."

-Yakumi, in complete human form, comes out as well, restoring Rensa's body to how it was before.

"Huh? What? I don't-."

"You tried so hard to force me onto one of two paths that you forgot that I'm exactly the type to say screw that and forge my own path."

Yakumi doubles over with laughter.

"HAHAHAHAHAAAA! This is too rich! I'm saved by the anti-hero!"

Screws bore through multiple points on her body to pin her down.

"Is that what you think is happening here? You really don't know me at all if you seriously think I'm kind enough to let your insanity remain in this world."

Even with all the metal protruding from her, she laughs.

"Hee hee...and your own insanity is somehow alright here? Isn't that hypocritical?"

"Yeah. It's what I am."

"Haaaa. But how are you going to kill me then? Rensa should be proof enough that humans can survive all sorts of travesties and should I manage to survive, I'll just crawl my way up through the muck and destroy everything you love!"

"Oh, I have the perfect way for taking care of you."

She grins sickly at all the ideas her mind conjured up. But none of those could apply.

Kumagawa's hand gently rests onto the top of her head, eliciting legitimate bewilderment from Yakumi.

"Though I never said I was going to kill you. Not at any one time."

She frowns initially but as the realization hits, her face goes blank with a sobering fear that pierces straight though her insanity.

That same realization strikes another as they raise a hand as though to stop him, but it's too late once you see it's too late. Still, a voice falters on in the face of inevitability.

"Wai-"

"All Fiction."

With that, Yakumi Hisako was no more and this long fight had ended.

The hand hesitates for but a moment, then drops with their half-made intentions.

* * *

The sun rises over the bustling city of science as the rioting ceased in the Learning Core. The estimated 7500 fabricated heroes snapped out of their fugue state with little memory of what, when, where, or why anything had happened. They knew they had been fighting for something...or was it some _one_...either way, it just didn't seem to matter as much to them anymore. Throngs of these former heroes leave the Learning Core with the vaguest sense they had been involved with something strange but in time, they'll forget about it all.

Touma watches the morning sun from his hospital bed. The horrible events from the night prior left that beautiful scene little more than a facade for him as he recalls everything. At least Fremea and everyone else made it out safely. Hamazura and the girl he was with were hurt quite badly but they're being treated now, just as he was, and they should be leaving this hospital soon, with Touma leaving a day or so after due to the wounds he received from fighting Kumagawa. On top of that, he had brought the two tubes filled with the pieces of the previous Rensa pilots as well as the location of the other ones for the frog-faced doctor here to do something about them. If anyone could return some semblance of life back to those poor people, it'd be him.

There was so much that went right about last night in spite of everything that it should make Touma at least set aside those awful things that had transpired. But even so, no especially so, he just can't let it go.

[Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. I'm getting real tired of having to look at that depressed ass face. Seriously, look how beautiful it is out there!]

Touma turns to the door way to see his partner in crime from the night before with a look of disgust on his face. He smiles a bit and raises his arm in greeting, sitting up in his bed as he does.

"Hey Kumagawa."

[That's slightly better but I get the feeling you'll just go back to being emo afterwards...do you want the same X-ray vision treatment I gave Zura-chan? You'd get to see the really good bits behind the uniforms of the cute nurses here!]

"Absolutely not."

Kumagawa walks up and sits on the end of the bed, stroking his chin pensively.

[Hmm. Guess I know what you mean. It's the uniform that gives them their appeal but it'd be even better to just simply KNOW that they're nurses without their uniform on!]

Normally Touma wouldn't engage in this sort of a thing but he also wanted to find a way to stop Kumagawa from using his ability to make it so girls everywhere would have their clothes made into nothing. As a champion of the people and a veteran fighter against his fellow Delta Force members, he had to stop the ever looming menace of Kumagawa's perversion. He just needed an opening.

"That doesn't even make sense. Do they even need to be nurses in that case?"

[Nah man! See, it's kinda like glasses on a girl, it's hot when they're on but even moreso when they're off!]

"Still then it shouldn't be necessary that they be nurses."

[Oh you poor, poor bastard. How could you not understand even that most basic of universal truths? Take ponytails for example. They are usually up all the time and therefore, the moment they're down, it allows the female to radiate 60 to 70 percent more sexiness on average.]

There it was.

"So that truth is that things that are worn on a woman will make the woman herself even more sexier when taken off?"

[At last you see the light my brother!]

"But isn't it so that what little skin a woman shows, it increases her inherent sexiness more than when it's all off?"

[Hmm.]

"Doesn't that kinda poke a hole in that so-called truth of yours?"

[HMMMMMMMMMMM. This is...honestly concerning. I'll have to give that a bit more thought before I can give a proper answer to you.]

Touma pumps his arm where Kumagawa can't see.

"That's fine. But...well thank you."

Kumagawa looks over with an eyebrow raised.

[Huh?]

"You didn't have to do as much as you had last night, even with that promise to that girl you know. That and for helping me take my mind off last night, even if it was for just a bit."

Kumagawa lets out a low sigh and looks out the window for a bit, seemingly to collect his thoughts. After a few minutes he turns back to Touma, his eyes showing a more serious glint to them than they had when he walked in.

"You're still hung up on that crap? Before I get into that, don't underestimate my promises to the ones I can consider friends. If Misaki-chan asks me to help you save your friends, that's exactly what I'll do. It doesn't matter to what extent that goes to. I'll give her that much effort. As far as the rest goes...none of that was your fault. That was just me being selfish in taking my anger out on that woman. I wouldn't have let you get in my way even if you wanted to."

Touma clenches his fists as he stares at his lap.

"But I did want to. I know. I know she was insane and she would have just infected the world like a cancer if she was alive. Even so...I killed her before that point. I killed her without even hearing her out. And all because she chose that. She wouldn't listen to me so I refused to listen to her just because my friends were still in danger. If it ended there, I...wouldn't be fine exactly but I would accept it eventually. It was my decision in the end so I would _have_ to accept it if I wanted to keep going but then...she came back by your power. Even if she was evil, even if you would have stopped me, even if I had been fine with her death at my hands before...I _could have saved her_. I had that chance in front of me but all I could do is meekly raise my hand a bit when it was too late to do anything. Maybe-"

"Maybe you could have given her another chance. Maybe she could have been saved, rehabilitated even. Maybe, just maybe. That's all it really is."

The venom in his words stuns Touma but not because of it being directed at him. He couldn't know for sure but it almost felt like it was for Kumagawa himself.

"...Tell me, Touma-kun. What is it that you think All Fiction to be?"

"Huh?"

"Do you think that Skill to be some miracle maker? Do you think it should be used in some other manner, like to end world hunger or something? Because it can do that. Just as I could make the world into nothing, I can do the same with world hunger or disease or any other thing that plagues humanity. I could end all the Four Horsemen with just a snap of my finger and make this place a utopia. But I don't. I could save so many but I never do by choice. Do you know why?"

Touma says nothing, waiting on his reply.

"Because nothing can't solve anything meaningful. Reality is the way it is because there are so many horribly bad and good things in it. There would be an immeasurable number of consequences for saving the planet from all those things but I'll start with world hunger."

He stands up and walks to the window on the other side of the bed, staring out of it with a sadness in his eyes.

"I make it so no one can suffer from famine again by making famine into nothing. Food becomes worthless to the majority and it would likely just be some luxury item as no one would need food again. People all over rejoice at this loophole in reality as they no longer have to suffer from hunger again. But to think all suffering ends there is just plain ignorant. All industries involved in food making would collapse basically on the night people realize that they no longer need to eat. All those people would be out of jobs, resulting a global collapse of the economy. War and crime rises along with death all over as people try to make sense of their new world, failing miserably as this new reality is too illogical for them. Humanity would rise up again, I'm sure. We're as stubborn as cockroaches in that regard."

His whole body tenses with anger as he spits his words out.

"But the cost would be way to high for me to do something so reckless, as hypocritical as that sounds. No matter what, reality needs good, evil, and everything in between to function properly. That doctor is included in that. Her evil was necessary for good people to rise up and stop her and vice versa. I cannot deny her purpose but I am still allowed to hate it. That's why I made her into nothing. For something as childish as 'I hate her so I don't want her to exist anymore'. Such selfishness is all I will allow All Fiction or Bookmaker to be used for. Because at least small scale things like that can be managed easily enough to only have a localized Butterfly Effect. Everything else...is simply too much for a loser like me to handle properly."

"...I hadn't thought that far into your Skill. To be honest, I hadn't thought you would have either."

Kumagawa laughs sardonically as he faces Touma again.

"I may be an idiot but I'd like to think that I know how to use my Skills in a more or less responsible way. So stop thinking so hard about what ifs or you'll just get bogged in bullshit for you to drown in."

"...Right. I'll remember that. Thanks."

Kumagawa sighs in relief as he puts the old, worn mask of a fool back on with a smile.

[Now THAT, I'll accept thanks for! Had me worried you might go into some Demon King phase if I let you keep that crap up!]

"Heh, yeah maybe I'll start leaning towards that in a 100 billion years or something when Index goes into 100% beast mode on me."

[...Don't go saying shit like that. You're gonna tempt that sadistic dominatrix, Fate-oneechan, into putting us both through exactly that.]

The two misfortunate bastards receive a large chill down their spines.

"Uh yeah. Let's just ignore that."

[Seriously! I have more important things to worry about!]

"Like what?"

[Like finding a place to sleep for the night. Enshuu-chan keeps kicking me out of her lab whenever she's working because I'm supposedly a distraction. Psh! I sit in my corner and read manga quietly like the good boy I am and this is how I'm treated!]

"Haaaaah. That sort of misfortunate just reminded me. My attendance is going to take a serious hit again from my stay here. And that frogman won't let me leave even if I say I'm alright! He even has nurses posted at all the entrances and exits because he knows their kind auras will force me to go along with what they say!"

Kumagawa stops his shared groan against luck with a confused expression.

[Eh? How are you in that much trouble? Couldn't you just have a friend or something answer for you when it comes to the attendance?]

Touma's heart stops.

"...What."

[I said-]

Suddenly, the Imagine Breaker chucks one of his pillows at that Crawling Minus like it was a rock being lobbed at someone sentenced to stoning. At least, he was wishing that was the case. After all, how could anyone accept such a basic, though never thought of despite that, idea coming from Kumagawa of all people.

"No I heard. I just can't believe I'm so stupid that I hadn't even considered that option...WHY DIDN'T I MEET YOU SOONER SO YOU COULD TELL ME THAT SOONER!? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BE SO LATE YOU BASTARD!?"

[Whoa! Calm down before you tear something! Besides, that technique can only work a few times before your teacher either realizes the voice is off or they're patience with it wears off. You should choose those moments to use that carefully.]

"Damn it...wait. ….You...look like me with your hair gelled. Maybe a bit scrawnier but-"

[Hold up there duder, what makes you think I'd just go with that plan?]

Touma leaps eagerly to sway his prospective chump into saving his high-school career from being extended.

"Because you can stay in my apartment for the time being!"

[Oho? But don't you have a girl there? Index-chan, was it? Who knows what would happen between us with you out the picture?]

The two are silent for some time, to the point where Kumagawa was even feeling like he had gone too far before Touma roars with laughter, tears streaming down his face as he thumps the side of his bed with one arm.

"PFFFFFFT! HAHAHAHA!"

[...Annoying me here bud.]

"Sorry but you'll have to see for yourself on that end. Here's my keys, unless you don't want to stay there."

[...Weeeeeell, putting aside your really unappealing response, I ain't gotta choice anyway! Thanks!]

He pockets the keys as he turns to leave.

"What now then?"

[I'm going to finally watch my goddamn anime is what now then!]

"I mean...about Ajimu.."

Touma had been considering whether or not to tell him that they had met but he wasn't all that sure of what Kumagawa's response would be. After all, he said that he had spent the majority of his life to stop her. That combined with his generally unstable mental state, made Touma more than a bit uneasy about telling him.

[Ajimu huh? She can wait another day for me to worry about. I mean, she's waited so damn long to do anything about it in the first place so I'm pretty sure when she does go on the move, we'll know. Plus, I'm fucking DONE doing anything at all for awhile! I'm just gonna chill at your place and ogle some cuties at your school to relieve some stress.]

"Haha...I see. Um, hey I-"

Before he could get a word in, the worst possible opener to a joke that Touma could ever experience happened, a nun and a Japanese schoolgirl walk into the hospital room with an alien visitor to meet them.

To be specific on their identities, it was Index and Misaka Mikoto that entered.

Index came on the suspicion that Touma would be there while Mikoto came because she heard he was there from Misaki after the business at the Learning Core. The two had their typical banter between each other as they walked up but now, they are both silent in the face of seeing Kumagawa. For Index, it was simply because she didn't know him at all.

But for Mikoto, the reason was shear rage as sparks begin to fly while she glares daggers at Kumagawa.

The man in question was sweating profusely at this unexpected encounter. Normally he'd just laugh at tease her a good bit but this was already eating into his much desired decompression time. He wanted out of this mess. So with the slow starting sound of an old lightbulb going off, he chuckles softly before walking back towards the bed.

"And where do you think you're going, pervert? I still owe you for that 'magic trick' you showed me."

Touma shivers from the cold and savage smile that little brunette gave to Kumagawa's back. He knew that he had to have done something bad to Mikoto but he still had to empathize with him even so.

Kumagawa stops just at the foot of Touma's bed before looking his electrocutioner in the face.

[My dear, I have assessed the situation and have decided that I must go.]

"Reeeeeaaaally now? And where to, might I ask?"

[I need to go return some video tapes.]

"Wait wha-"

[Before that, here's what you asked of me, my most cherished FRIEND.]

With that odd punctuation, he tosses something at Touma's face. As he pulls it from his face to see what it was, Kumagawa gives him a casual salute with a smug look about him as he runs full force into and out the window.

"What the hell? Er, sorry about that! He's kind of an awkward guy but he's a good person."

Mikoto's face was discernible from under the hair as she stares down.

"So, he _is_ your _friend_ then huh?"

"Well...yeah. Though that's something of a changing-"

Something strikes him.

Mikoto being angry at Kumagawa for something, presumably, perverted.

Kumagawa chucking something at him while emphasizing the word, friend, before running out of a window on the 5th floor of the hospital.

What is it that Kumagawa would do when confronted by a situation he'd rather not deal with?

Touma looks to his hand for the answer, wadded into his hand.

Why, he'd just press all the responsibility onto someone else in the absolute worst way of course.

There was a pair of white panties, in full view of the two angriest girls in his life.

"Toooooouuuumaaaa…."

"You…."

Before his punishment by way of cannibalistic scalping and electrocution, he shouts out his window.

"KUMAGAWA YOU BASTAAAAAAAAAAARD!"

Off in the distance, laughing and crying can be heard over the sounds of the waking city.

* * *

The end was as he had expected but the journey was not. Aleister Crowley rewatches several scenes of the previous nights events.

It was a situation had set up for the sake of his original plan but it also served decently well with his side plan as well. But things were going far too slow on that end. If he was to stop her, he needed to start cutting some corners.

But first, he needs to address the immortal in the room.

"So, do you care to explain yourself?"

The screens close themselves as he stares Ajimu down. She smiles warmly from on top that desk, that seems more like an accessory for her at this point than anything else.

"What would I have to explain? The fact that I sicced my Terminals on your golden boy?"

"That's self explanatory. You clearly sent them to groom your own 'golden boy'. What I mean is your attempt to provoke Kamijou Touma into a fight."

"Ahhh. That. Sorry to say but I've decided on involving him into my own plan."

"Really now."

He already had his suspicions but at this point she was just mocking him with that. Ajimu laughs at his unamused expression.

"Don't sweat it! It's not going to impede your progress there or anything. Honestly it would give him some much needed EXP."

"I don't see how. The Imagine Breaker isn't strong enough to repel your Skills, much less kill you."

"Oh? But what about what you've had growing behind that?"

Aleister raises an eyebrow.

"That isn't meant for something like you. With your Skills commanding magic, I would think it would be meaningless to you."

"Because of little One Eye breaking it? Well that may be true if my Skills could involve the magic of this series."

"Hm?"

"I have spent quite some time pondering my death. I was so concerned over the how of it that I never thought on the why. I was honestly about to abandon this place until I saw it spring from his stump of an arm to attack Kumagawa. What he saw then, wasn't a lack of weakness but rather a lack of definition."

"Definition? I can't see what-"

"Getting to that, Edd. His Imagine Breaker is a very well defined ability but that is what makes it weak against me. There are upper and lower limits to it. But that thing behind it has none of those. It is a complete and utter unknown that I couldn't possibly have a defense for, being a person so separated from this series system for powers. Should that strike me, I'd die without so much a fight or casualty. It's the most bloodless a suicide as I can get to."

"Hmph. And what if I were to give the information on how it works to Kumagawa then? By that logic, it would become worthless in it's ability to you and he would be able to come up with a counter measure to you."

Ajimu's smile disappears so quick, that it may as well have never been there, as she stares deep into Aleister's eyes.

"...Then I would have to abandon playing nice completely. Besides, that fake loser couldn't be any weaker than his original."

Aleister needed more information so he just shrugs off her threat and moves along.

"Fake? What do you mean?"

"You wouldn't know but he is drastically different from the one I know. Not his fault for having a shitty writer using him here. This one curses like a sailor, he makes references to shitty western movies and the like instead of manga, he uses Bookmaker FAR more than ever did, and he is a great deal more serious. Even if it can be said to be plausible, that doesn't make him the same. Thus, he is even weaker in essence than he was in the source material."

"Doesn't that apply to you as well?"

Ajimu chuckles as she swings her legs over the edge of the desk.

"Touche. But I have taken great strides of caution in how I act here. My limited presence in the story has allowed me to remain closer to my original self."

"Well either way, going by your own delusions, you can't actually die here if this is just some fan based work, right?"

"And that shitty writer's segue spewing from you decently let's us get to the core of this. The plausibility of my death!"

She leaps from the desk and walks over to Aleister's life support tube.

"It's a lot like those pointless arguments over what character can beat who, like Goku vs One Punch Man. They just spit mean facts about what the characters can do and say 'Yeah! He'd totally stomp him into the ground!' without any real thought to it. That's just ignorant. It's not as though those things don't matter but they are just one small piece of it. Why do they fight? When, where, how? Without that level of definition behind it, it becomes only a matter of who the mediocre author writing that fanfic wishes it to end."

With a light hop, she floats up to Aleister's eye level and smiles darkly.

"Such as it is with this. This writer doesn't wish for such a simple end. He'd rather drag it out like his updates. He could just have a confrontation between myself and Kamijou-kun where I die to that thing but that would be rather unsatisfying wouldn't it? My death requires that plausibility. Soon, or in Freeza seconds really, this world will be destroyed by that One Eyed cutie and she'll throw your boy into an endless hell of fabricated worlds. Given there are so many, couldn't it be said this very story is but another of those? Should I die in that, it could be plausible for the readers to accept the events here as being possible in the original story. It can be possible that my canon self would die here. And thus, I have a chance at finally, finally, FINALLY ending this shitty immortality that was written into my character."

"...And that wouldn't affect the residents of this world? You really think assisting with your suicide is something that can be in Kamijou Touma's character?"

She pokes the glass in a bemused manner with the nail of her index finger.

"Again, touche. But even if that screws with the result, it's a chance I'll have to take. As such, I'm ending our business relationship."

With that, she drops to ground and turns away, walking off.

"...I'll still stop you even if I can't keep an eye on you like this."

Without stopping or even twisting her head to look at him, she lets out a dry laugh.

"So you admit it. Well that's fine. Because I'm going on the offensive now and there's nothing a loser like you or that fake can do to stop me. Hope your own plan goes well, Edd! If nothing else, I do admire your determination to your cause."

And then she was gone. She was one of the first people to come into his life as a magician. Rather than teach him magic, Ajimu taught him a way of life.

Success or failure. Good and evil. Strong or weak.

None of that really matters.

It was the kind of philosophy he was sure that he would have learned over the course of his life but she had presented it in a clear cut way from the very beginning of his career in magic. It hadn't changed anything for him but at least she gave him the tools needed to temper himself into the man he needs to be in order to see his will through to the end.

And for that, never mind the fact that the world might end, he wanted to save her.

Or rather, he wanted the one meant to save her to get to it already.

But if there was anything right about what Ajimu had said, it was the fact that Kumagawa was unfit for being that person as he is now. Therefore, he just needs to be molded into the proper person for the task of saving a suicidal immortal.

"...Is she gone?"

"You can never quite tell with her. She could be simply content on watching from afar or she could just as easily be waiting to appear right in the middle of conversation. Though if it's any consolation, I don't think she'd do that now."

On a screen that had just reopened, was a hyper-intelligent, cigar-smoking, mad scientist Golden Retriever by the name of Noukan Kihara.

"Between good and evil, she is neither at heart but between like and dislike, it's a rather fierce dislike. She's way too unpredictable for someone so absurdly strong. It makes things so much harder on our end."

Aleister smiles at this.

"True. Well? How _did_ things go there?"

"Well enough other than the odd bits here and there. Yuuitsu was more than successful in implanting the Kihara mindset into Yakumi so she'd go out of control with the Agitate Halation Project and we were able to take care of those rioting so they'll forget about the whole thing. Honestly, there's some promise with that project. Though I'm not really that interested in pursuing it currently. But moving on from that. Are you sure we should really be using little Enshuu like this? Or rather, why are we going this far anyway? Kumagawa's Bookmaker should be capable enough for sealing her powers so he can just All Fiction them away."

"He's already done tried that before, unfortunately."

Noukan's snout scrunches up in thought as he puffs on his cigar.

"Hmm. Then, even moreso, why him?"

"Because he's the closest one to her. He's got more than enough determination to boot. All he needs is a bit of...rewiring. If we get him closer to how he was when they met, he'll be able to stop her for good."

"I know you care for her as someone that had helped you so much in your youth but do you really think it's a good idea to use Kamijou Touma for that?"

"Yes. Being so close to someone he'd have to constantly compare himself to should have a nice effect on him."

"Even though that influence works both ways?"

"Even so."

"Very well. I will continue with my end of things then. Talk to you later."

Aleister nods before cutting the connection.

That was his plan. He would guide Kumagawa about in a similar manner to Touma in order to help shape his personality into being one that can properly take on Ajimu. That was why the plans had to shift with that Agitate Halation. He needed these two to meet and interact so Kumagawa could see someone as damned in fortune as he and had yet had all the things Kumagawa yearned so much for. He needed Kumagawa to face reality. Because only once he had finally grown past the angry nihilist of his bygone days, can he finally defeat his truest enemy.

To this end, Aleister turns his thoughts away from why he meddles with these otherworlders and moves back to the how with a cascade of screens opening as he makes his plans.

* * *

 **To everyone just coming across this and, especially, to the ones that have somehow returned here after so long, thanks for reading. So sorry for the late update. Between how long I knew this update was going to have to be to finish this arc and real life, I had no motivation to go with. It does make me feel bad though to leave something I've put so much work in. I suppose, in that case, it's not like I had a choice but to get me off my lazy ass huh? Anyway, this was a pretty long one. Dunno about longest in the story but it's the longest I've done in a bit. So long I don't even really know how to go about these afterward deals anymore! Hopefully I've made all the exposition and action interesting enough. Really wanted to make it show that Touma had come to trust Kumagawa enough to know that no matter what, they'll pretty much be on the same page when it comes to saving people. Though, Touma's view is a bit wrong at the moment. Not his fault when he hasn't really seen the kinds of lengths he'd go to save Ajimu. Her plans for suicide would, of course, have to be meta as hell. How else could a girl like her get killed off? Next arc will be about vampires coming to Academy City with Touma and Kumagawa going off on a buddy cop adventure! There'll be action, backstory into how Kumagawa first came to this world, and a few of the older characters in the Toaru series. Just...wait a bit for that. I hesitate to give any deadlines as I just never know when I'll feel like writing or when I'll be able to but nonetheless, I will continue this until it's logical end! ...Wherever the hell that is.**


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